Multiple United Nations agencies issued a joint statement Thursday regarding a global outbreak H5N1, a type of bird flu that poses ongoing risks to humans.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) issued the statement as an increasing number of mammals are contracting H5N1. It is believed that as more animals and mammals contract the virus, it might adapt to infect humans with greater ease.
H5N1 first emerged in 1996 from the Guangdong region of China, and has since spread into countless variants of H5 flu viruses, the statement continued. The most recent variants, which emerged in 2020, right around the same time as COVID-19, have killed hundreds of millions of poultry, mainly in the U.S. and other parts of the Americas.
Another year, another potential health crisis https://t.co/OIP3sbSjhA
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 5, 2023
A further 26 other species of mammal have been affected by the outbreaks, including domesticated pets such as cats and dogs. H5N1 was recently found in cats in Poland, the statement noted.
“There is a recent paradigm change in the ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza which has heightened global concern as the disease spread to new geographical regions and caused unusual wild bird die-offs, and alarming rise in mammalian cases,” Head of WOAH’s Science Department Dr. Gregorio Torres said in the statement. (RELATED: World Health Organization: H3N8 Avian Influenza Virus Kills First Human)
When spread in humans, H5N1 causes serious illness with a very high mortality rate. “With the information available so far, the virus does not appear to be able to transmit from one person to another easily, but vigilance is needed to identify any evolution in the virus that can change that,” Director of WHO’s Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, Dr. Sylvie Briand noted.
Research is being conducted to determine just how the virus is evolving, which is occurring at a “rapid” rate. Experts are being brought together to determine how best to curb the spread. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this doesn’t give me much hope.