#Global #concern #pandemic #spreading #number #countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a number of countries may witness another epidemic amid the growing spread of a potentially fatal disease.
The World Health Organization has warned that the spread of bird flu is a major concern with 463 deaths recorded among 889 human cases between 2003 and 2023, saying that a widespread outbreak of the disease could lead to unusually high death rates.
The highly lethal subtype of bird flu (H5N1) caused devastating declines in bird populations after emerging in Europe in 2020, and has recently jumped to cattle, cats, seals and now humans.
As a result, this increased the risk that the virus would become more transmissible between humans, according to what was published by the British newspaper “Daily Express”.
There is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, but experts are now warning that if this changes, the resulting pandemic would be more dangerous than Covid.
Experts at the World Health Organization say that the spread of the bird flu pandemic among humans will lead to the death of about half of those infected due to the disease.
“I think this remains a major concern,” said Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the United Nations health agency. “The biggest concern, of course, is that when ducks and chickens and then increasingly mammals are infected, this virus is now evolving and developing the ability to infect… “Infecting humans and then, crucially, being able to transmit from one human to another.”
He also pointed out: “When you join the group of mammals, you are getting close to humans… This virus is just looking for new hosts,” and described bird flu as a global zoonotic pandemic, with scientists concerned about its spread between different animals, although there is no evidence yet. It is spreading among humans.
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