Bird Flu
Nadia Ali, MPH and Thomas Tsang, MD, MPH
Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, New York, NY
Recently there have been growing fears about the avian
influenza (H5N1) otherwise known as bird flu amongst the Asian population in
the United States.
Avian influenza, or "bird flu", is a contagious disease of animals
caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs.
Avian influenza viruses typically infect birds, but have, on rare occasions,
infected humans. Direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and
objects contaminated by their feces, is presently considered the main route of
human infection. Symptoms of bird flu in humans have ranged from
typical flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches) to eye
infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases (such as acute respiratory
distress), and other severe and life-threatening complications.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been less than 150
confirmed cases of the bird flu in humans, leading to a total of 67 deaths.
To date, there have been no reported human cases of the bird
flu in the United States.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), statistics show that there
is a much greater risk of contracting the influenza (flu) virus, a contagious
respiratory illness in the United
States. Every year in the United States,
on average: 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu; more than 200,000 people
are hospitalized from flu complications, and; about 36,000 people die from
flu. Some people, such as older people, young children, and people with
certain health conditions, are at high risk for serious flu
complications. The best way to prevent this illness is by getting a flu
vaccination each fall.
Since December 2003, the Republic
of Korea, Vietnam,
Japan, Thailand, Cambodia,
Lao PDR, Indonesia, China, Malaysia,
and Mongolia have
experienced poultry outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, along with Russia, Kazakhstan,
Turkey and Romania.
In addition, Canada
has also found
cases of the avian flu in ducks;
however, this strain is not dangerous to human health. Currently,
laboratory-confirmed human cases have been reported in five Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia,
Thailand, and Vietnam and China. Hong
Kong has experienced two outbreaks in the past. If you have
traveled or plan on traveling to Asia in the
near future, there are some precautions you can take. Before leaving for
travel, you can educate yourself and others about the current situation in the
country you will be traveling to, and be up to date with your routine vaccinations,
as well as any other travel vaccinations you may need. Please be advised that
there are no vaccinations available for the bird flu. While traveling in an
affected area, it is best to avoid all direct contact with poultry, including
touching well-appearing, sick, or dead chickens and ducks. Avoid places such as
poultry farms and bird markets where live poultry are raised or kept, and avoid
handling surfaces contaminated with poultry feces or secretions. As
with other
infectious illnesses, one of the
most important preventive practices is careful and frequent hand washing.
Influenza viruses are destroyed by heat; therefore, as a precaution, all foods
from poultry, including eggs and poultry blood, should be thoroughly
cooked. After your return,
monitor your health for 10 days. If
you become ill with a fever plus a cough, sore throat, or trouble breathing
during this 10-day period, consult a health-care provider. Before you visit a
health-care setting, tell the provider the following: 1) your symptoms, 2)
where you traveled, and 3) if you have had direct contact with poultry or close
contact with a severely ill person. This way, he or she can be aware that you
have traveled to an area reporting avian influenza.
Again, the current risk to those in America from the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in Asia is low. The strain of H5N1 virus found in Asia and
Europe has not been found in the United States. There have been no
human cases of H5N1 flu in the United
States. It is possible that travelers returning
from affected countries in Asia could be infected if they were exposed to the
virus.
(The Chinese version
was printed in the World Journal on March 16, 2006 and in Singtao
News on March 19, 2006)
禽流感
禽流感(H5N1)是一種由通常只傳染鳥類有時也會傳染豬的病毒引起的動物傳染病。禽流感病毒主要傳染鳥類，但是在極少數情況下也曾經傳染過人類。 目前，與受病毒感染的禽類或被其糞便污染了的物體表面的直接接觸被認爲是人類感染禽流感的主要途徑。人類患禽流感後的症狀包括典型的類似流感的症狀（發燒，咳嗽，咽喉痛及肌肉疼痛），眼部感染，肺炎，嚴重的呼吸系統疾病（如急性呼吸困難）以及其他有生命危險的嚴重併發症。
迄今爲止，美國還沒有報告人患禽流感的個案。疾病控制中心 (CDC) 的資料表明，美國人感染流感病毒---一種呼吸道傳染病的風險較大。 美國平均每年有5% 至 20% 的人患流感；200,000 以上的人因流感併發症住院治療；約36,000 人死於流感。一些人如老人，兒童及具有某些特定健康問題的人患嚴重流感併發症的風險很高。預防流感的最好方法就是在每年秋季注射流感疫苗。
目前，有五個國家報告經證實的人類禽流感病例：柬埔寨，印度，泰國，越南和中國。 香港已經歷了兩次禽流感爆發。 若你近期有到亞洲旅行的打算，那麽你可以採取下列預防措施﹕ 在出發之前，你可先瞭解你將要去的國家的當前狀況，按時間注射常規疫苗及可能需要注射的其他旅行疫苗。 請注意目前還沒有禽流感疫苗。 在病區內旅行時，最好避免所有與禽類的直接接觸，包括觸摸外表狀況良好，有病或死的雞和鴨子。 避免到養雞場和鳥類市場，避免接觸被禽類糞便或分泌物污染過的物體表面。 如同其他傳染性疾病一樣，最重要的預防措施之一就是仔細頻繁地洗手。 流感病毒會被高溫消滅；因此，作爲預防措施，來自禽類的所有食物包括雞蛋和禽類的血液都必須熟透後再食用。 旅行歸來之後的十天內對你的健康狀況進行監測。 若在這十天內，你生病發燒且咳嗽，喉嚨痛或呼吸困難，那麽請向醫生進行咨詢。 在你到健康護理機構去看病之前，請告訴醫生：1）你的症狀，2）你去過哪里旅行，及3）你是否曾與禽類有過直接接觸，或是否曾與重病病人有過密切接觸。 主要目的是要讓醫生知道你曾經到過禽流感流行地區去旅行過。
王嘉廉社區醫療中心 曾達華醫生