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as bird flu continues to spread across the globe not only in animals but now in more Americans than ever in history many people are starting to ask the dreaded question is this the next pandemic that humans are about to face are all the headlines and news articles accurate or simply stoking fear to generate clicks this video will help you understand what's actually going on as it currently stands what happens if you catch bird flu how close it is to becoming a pandemic if at all if you should be worried and what we can even do h5n1 the current subtype of bird flu being talked about is an influenza A virus which are the kind of viruses responsible for the most Global pandemics in human history
more than any other pathogen h5n1 first infected humans in 1997 in China with its largest impact between 2003 to 2015 in Southeast Asia both outbreaks required massive efforts to contain including killing entire domestic poultry populations and while levels did taper off the virus continued to mutate and travel through a bir communities both wild and domestic in 2024 it seemingly took a dangerous turn this time spilling into cattle populations most of these infections were in the US where it began to infect humans and now the strain has a catchy title which is 2.
3.4.4 bh5 N1 this variant has shown mammal to mammal Transmission in European fur Farms amongst South American marine mammals like these sea lions and most recently between the US dairy cattle two domestic cats to raccoons mice and now humans so not only has it infected over 136 million birds of that about 500 different bird species it's now infected over 48 different mammal species and this is causing extreme concern in the scientific Community now when looked at through the lens of something like Co the numbers in humans seem small since the start of 20124 around 80 people internationally have been infected 67 of which were in the United States with one dying and that's partially because of how
influenza transmits on its surface it has something called a hemog glutenin or ha which binds two specific receptors in a potential host and this bird flu isn't optimally adapted or compatible to the receptors in our human upper respiratory tract this area is important because if infected we end up coughing or sneezing out the virus and infecting others but we do have some of these receptors much deeper in the lungs as well as in our eyes and that's likely how it's infected humans so far in fact a key symptom of h5n1 is conjunctivitis also known as pink ey 93% of people infected have had pink ey 49% experienced a fever and 36% had respiratory symptoms but because we don't have a ton of these receptors it
means that all the infected humans have been in direct contact with an infected animal whether that's been through a dairy cow spreading respiratory droplets into a farmer's eye direct contact with poultry or just being in highly contaminated areas like a farm or a live animal Market in this sense we're lucky as there's no evidence yet of human to human spread which brings about the question can it become better adapted to our receptors and if so what happens then and this is where the legitimate fear around this new pandemic comes into play in fact a study was published in December of 20124 that showed a single mutation of the virus's hemog glutenin from a glutamine to a Lucine at residue
226 could change it from an Aven to human specific virus the modified virus was able to bind to Human receptors in the upper respiratory tract which would make it easier to pass from Human to human now will the virus achieve this specific mutation naturally we can't know for sure but the fact that it's spread to so many different mammal species is only giving it more chances to evolve and adapt the more mammal to- mammal transmission we see the greater this risk becomes in fact samples from the first human case contracted from a dairy cow already showed a mutation of something called the polymerase protein which helps the virus replicate by using the host cells machinery
this mutation from cows allows increased proliferation more effectively than any bird flu virus before yikes and the newest strain of h5n1 is better at binding to human epithelial cells in Airways than before not to mention influenza viruses are quite good at recombining and if it gets into a human that's already infected with another human influenza virus There's an opportunity for it to exchange genetic material which could make it even better suited for human transmission spill over into swine would also be a large issue because they can be suitable host for even more reassortment but it's important to know that there are other barriers as well these hemog gluten and proteins would need to be able to tolerate lower pH levels if not the
virus won't be able to survive in the acidic micro environments of Airborne particles or survive in Mamon respiratory secretions and there are many opportunities for us to minimize the spread whether that be through close monitoring of the Maman cases in sea lions mink and cattle to be aware if these mutations are taking place sadly this isn't really happening we know the bird flu is spreading amongst mammals in the US and Canada in around like 900 herds but we are only testing in certain States scientists are calling for a stay at Farm order keeping cattle within Farms not allowing them to spread also Farmers should be using PPE not just masks covering their face especially their eyes when working with sick cattle
and we need increased testing on farms of the animals of the patients of the livestock of the animals and mammals in and around these Farms as well the good news is that unlike a novel Corona virus like covid we could have vaccines ready for this pandemic as flu vaccines are much more researched it's also hypothesized that many people may already have better immunity to these flu viruses because of exposure to human influenza unfortunately that makes it a little scarier for younger people who haven't yet been exposed to as many flu viruses or flu vaccines over their lives in fact one Canadian teenager was in critical condition for over a month and virus sequences suggest it had mutated within the patient moving towards some
of the necessary adaptations needed to better infect humans the truth is it could go either way other Aven flu viruses have petered out in the past there also could be other mutations or situations needed that scientists aren't aware of right now in order for this to become a global pandemic but Louise monla a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania said this feels the closest to an H5 pandemic that I've ever seen and SEMA loala a flu researcher at Emory University says if H5 is ever going to become a pandemic it's going to be now despite the potential fear and a lot of anxiety that the science Community might be having around this it's important to know that the level of risk for the
general public is low and even the level of risk for Farm Workers right now is low to moderate so what can you do get your yearly flu vaccine if you haven't already not only will it protect you from the seasonal flu it may help decrease reassortment with h5n1 and could potentially minimize symptoms should you catch it scientists are developing and testing vaccines for the currently circulating H5 M1 virus and researchers showed that some of the stockpiled vaccines from the mid 2000s could help it's not time to panic but it's time to be warned and informed if you want to hear us talk a little more in depth about the bird flu we have a whole podcast episode on it I'll link it on screen or in the description
otherwise feel free to share this video with someone in your life who maybe is feeling afraid or uninformed about this bird flu thanks so much for watching and we'll see you ASAP for some more science peace
