• Question: Is there a vaccination for bird flu? If so, why have people died after contracting the disease?

    Asked by courtney22 to Holly on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by amyelliott.
    • Photo: Holly Shelton

      Holly Shelton answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Courtney

      There is a vaccination against bird flu that is currently being developed but it is not licenced yet for humans. The middle East and South east asia where bird flu is a problem in their chickens they vaccinate their chickens and ducks which has helped a bit with the problem of bird flu in birds. Only a very few people have ever got bird flu ~ 550 of them but ~60% of those people died. That is because the bird flu virus can do things that human flu can’t like replicate in your blood and brain. Human flu is restricted to your respiratory tract, (lungs and nose etc). People catch bird flu directly from sick birds usually by caring or playing with them. Bird flu is not a problem in the uk at the momment as our farm birds do not have it.

      We are working on the problem of getting rid of it in S.East ASia and the middle East and keeping an eye out for bird flu in new places in case it spreads and becomes a wide spread global problem

      Hope that helps

      Holly

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