Never before have so many countries been affected. The recent mass cat deaths in Europe have taken the crisis to another level. The World Health Organization wants a human vaccine ready.
break out Avian Influenza In the first half of 2023, it has generally not attracted much attention from the world.Basically because the main focus of the infection is still mostly birds. It’s unclear how long this will last, though.
Recent outbreaks of H5N1 strains in cats in Europe have raised another level of concern, as the virus’s massive spread has escalated from poultry populations to mammals..Given this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) would like to have a list of vaccines that protect people at worst.
June 27 last year marked the new turning pointwhen Poland notified the World Health Organization abnormal death Cats in different parts of the country. Forty-seven samples from 46 cats were analyzed, 29 of which were positive for influenza A(H5N1).
As of Tuesday, 61 cats had died, some from the virus and others euthanized.still unknown exposure source to virus. The good news is that, to the best of our knowledge, no one has been in contact with an infected cat and reported symptoms.
All people who have been exposed to animal influenza viruses and contacts of confirmed human cases should monitor your healthat least in 7 days after.
In an interview published by Polish media, the veterinarian who discovered one of the first cases of the outbreak publicly called for no domestic cats go away their owners will stop feeding them raw meatone of the contagion hypotheses.
The World Health Organization assures that recent outbreaks of bird flu in cats have shown that better prepared Avoid worst-case scenario virus-to-virus spread with ‘experimental vaccine’ Humanity.
To make these vaccines, candidate virus have the antigenicity required to match circulating strains viral. “If the virus becomes highly transmissible from person to person, we need to have something Zhang Wenqing, director of the WHO Global Avian Influenza Program, said.
In fact, countries like the United States already they are working on a vaccine Laboratories including Sanofi and Moderna said in recent statements to Reuters that research and laboratories targeting bird flu have been able to face challenge if needed.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “So far, no symptomatic cases of human contact (with infected cats) have been reported, and the surveillance period for all cases has ended.” But I remember the episode in Poland is the first episode so many mammals Infection with H5N1 virus wide geographical area.
“The virus is particularly worrying Gebreyesus assured Pope Francis before visiting Pope Francis because it is known to be very dangerous to humans, although it has never been shown to spread easily from person to person. The content of the meeting was not disclosed. This is the second time they have met: the first was before the pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization, less than 900 cases Between 2003 and 2020, the number of human infections with bird flu increased, but 457 died.
Bird outbreaks reported in the Americas this year 17 passes Among mammals, there are five species. “Outbreaks detected in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are a situation never recorded before“, said Argentina’s latest epidemiological bulletin, which analyzed the situation in the country and globally.
Since the introduction of bird flu to the Americas in 2014, three human infections: The first in the United States on April 29, 2022; the second in Ecuador on January 9, 2023; the third in Chile on March 29, 2023.
From February 1, 2023 (Senasa report date) first There was one case of avian influenza in the country (Pozuelos Lagoon, Jujuy) and as of 18 July, 101 outbreaks had been reported in 17 provinces. To date, no mammalian cases have been reported.
“this dangerous person An infected person is a person who has direct or indirect contact with an infected bird (domestic, wild or captive), such as an aviary who maintains close and regular contact with an infected bird, or during slaughter or cleaning and disinfection on an affected farm ,” the announcement said.
It added that “in Argentina, following regional recommendations, early recognition contacts (exposure to sick or dead poultry in the event of an avian influenza outbreak) and their 10-day follow-up to identify possible suspected cases (cases that developed symptoms during the follow-up period)”.
This year has been confirmed in Argentina 328 people have been exposed to the virus, has been placed under surveillance.they signed up with each other 20 suspected cases, studied by the National Influenza Center. However, the report concluded that “influenza A(H5N1) infection was excluded in all these cases”.