Excerpt
‘We must prepare’: WHO director warns of potential bird flu outbreak among humans.
February 09, 2023.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that we “must prepare” for a possible H5N1 bird flu pandemic and also mentioned that the WHO is engaging “manufacturers to make sure that if needed supplies of vaccines and antivirals will be available for global use.”
WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned about the bird flu virus potentially infecting humans during a virtual briefing on February 8. According to the WHO executive, there were several reports in the past weeks of the H5N1 virus increasingly being detected in several animal species, meaning that the virus likely spilled over from birds to mammals.
“For the moment, WHO assesses the risk to humans as low,” Ghebreyesus stated. “Since H5N1, first emerged in 1996, we have only seen rare and non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans, but we cannot assume that will remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo.”
“As always, people are advised not to touch or collect dead or sick wild animals but to report them to the local authorities. WHO is working with national authorities and partners to monitor the situation closely and to study cases of H5N1 infection in humans when they occur.”
“WHO recommends countries strengthen surveillance in settings where humans and farmed or wild animals interact,” he continued. “WHO is also continuing to engage with manufacturers to make sure that, if needed, vaccines and antivirals will be available for global use.”
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