Experts have raised concern over the threat of a bird flu pandemic, warning that it could be 100 times worse than Covid and can lead to fatalities in up to half of those infected.
During a recent briefing, the concerns were raised when researchers discussed the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
They expressed alarm that the virus may be approaching a critical threshold that could spark a global pandemic.
During the briefing, Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, a prominent bird flu researcher in Pittsburgh, warned that H5N1 has the potential to cause a pandemic, given its ability to infect a range of mammalian hosts, such as humans.
He added, ‘We are not really talking about a virus that is yet to make a jump, we are talking about a virus that is globally present, already infecting a range of mammals and is circulating. It is really high time that we are prepared’.
John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant and founder of Canada-based pharmaceutical company BioNiagara, echoed these concerns, emphasising the severity of a potential H5N1 pandemic and suggesting it could be far deadlier than Covid-19.
“This appears to be 100 times worse than Covid, or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate. Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the fatality rate drops,” Fulton stated.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 52 out of every 100 people diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu have died since 2003, with a total of 462 deaths out of 887 cases. In contrast, the current fatality rate for Covid is less than 0.1 %. However, at the start of the pandemic, it was around 20 %.
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