Public health experts have expressed concern about human infection with avian influenza.
Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the World Health Organization, today unveiled new measures to tackle the ongoing spread of avian influenza. He also stressed that avian influenza infection in mammals, including humans, poses a major public health concern.
Faller said the mortality rate from the virus was "extremely high" in the hundreds of known cases of human infection with the avian influenza A(H5N1) virus. And so far, no human-to-human transmission of the virus has been recorded.
"H5N1 is an influenza virus infection that originates mainly in poultry and has been spreading widely over the past one to two years and is developing into a global zoonotic pandemic," he explained. ”
"Of course, the most worrying thing is that in this transmission process, the virus is not only infecting chickens and ducks, but also infecting more and more mammals, and has now evolved to be able to infect humans. And the next thing is to see whether the virus will have the ability to spread from person to person. ”
Faced with the potential public health risks posed by the H5N1 virus, Faller warned that vaccine development has not yet reached "the extent we need" and that regional and national public health authorities around the world are not as good as they could have been able to diagnose H5N1 virus infection.
The mystery of the bovine infection
Referring to the continued H5N1 infection in U.S. dairy cows, Faller urged public health authorities to more closely monitor and investigate "because this has the potential to evolve different transmission routes."
"Is there aerosol generation when dairy farms are milked, is the virus infection related to the environment in which the cows live, is the transportation system responsible for the spread of the virus? And once it is confirmed that the H5N1 virus is spreading from person to person, we must ensure that there is an immediate response and equitable access to vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics. ”
Unified terminology
In response to this concern, WHO has also updated its terminology related to airborne pathogens in order to strengthen international cooperation in the event of a new and unexpected global pandemic.
Faller noted that the emergency caused by the pandemic prompted the WHO to promote the initiative. At the time, medical staff and scientists recognized that the lack of agreed-upon terminology in describing how the coronavirus spreads made it even more challenging to overcome the spread of the virus.
Tackling the next pandemic
To this end, WHO led consultations with four major public health agencies from Africa, China, Europe and the United States, and published a series of new commonly agreed terms. For example, "infectious respiratory particles" are used instead of "aerosols" and "droplets" to avoid any confusion about the size of the particles involved.
In addition to introducing the new terminology, the initiative aims to consolidate the commitment of the international community to respond to "increasingly complex and frequent epidemics and pandemics," Faller told reporters in Geneva. "This is a very important first step, but then we also need to bring together different disciplines and experts," he said.
"We already have the same terminology, the same language, and now we need scientific research to provide more evidence for understanding tuberculosis, coronavirus infections and other respiratory pathogens so that we can control these infections better than in the past," he said. ”
