The Bird Flu

People have been so frightened of beeing infected by the Bird Flu, and I can’t blame the one who are. The Bird Flu flies over the world and can take so many lives in no time and we can’t do anything to stop it- yet. The Bird Flu or Avian influenza, is a viral infection and it has infected the world like an epidemia. The virus was discovered in the beginning of the 20th century, and it was just chickens who were infected. But in year 1997 eighteen persons were infected in Hongkong and six of them died. That become to be the first time humans were involved in the virus.

The different kind of virus The Bird Flu has an effect that works like an ordinary cold. If you have a cold and you infect a friend of yours, she almost gets the same cold as the one you had, but she deploys it a little. The one your friend infects with the cold gets the same as her but a little different. The bird flu virus also affects through proteines which are on the virus. Today researchers have found two, 16 H-type and 9 N-type. The most aggressive one is H5N1.

To be infected Principally it’s just birds and chickens who become infected, because the virus flies in the air, when birds for exemple cough or sneeze. It takes about three to five days before the virus gives an effect to the infected bird. So far has over 100 million birds been found dead by the Bird Flu. Humans get infected by being near sick birds or their excrements. The symptoms you can have if you get infected by the virus are that  you experience hurting feelings in the neck, eye inflammation, fever, intestine and stomach trouble. Today we have nothing that anything who can cure the Bird Flu.

Where the Bird Flu exist The Bird Flu mostly occurs in Asia but has also been found in The Nederlands, Turkey, Russia, and Roumania. It hasn’t come to Scandinavia yet. But it can just be a question of time before it does.

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Writers: Johanna Lindström (sp07-12@park.se)
HTML by: Oscar Croon (te07-57@park.se).