Top > World > 2005 > October > 2005-10-16

Bird Flu in Romania

Europe waited this weekend for results of tests in Romania to see if the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu caused the deaths of birds in that country, and were met with a disappointing affirmative: Bird Flu has, thanks mostly to migratory birds, arrived in Europe. Earlier tests in nearby Turkey had confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain there, leading to a mass slaughter of birds by the Turkish authorities.

Scientists have long feared that the H5N1 strain of avian flu could mutate into a form that can be passed between humans, so far only those humans who have come into contact with birds carrying the virus have been infected, and of the 117-120 people who have been infected, 60 have died.

Global fears of a bird flu pandemic have led to governments spending massive amounts of money to build up flu vaccine stores, while the current vaccines are not effective against bird flu building up human immune systems to ",traditional", flu viruses may help prevent the avian flu virus from combining with and mutating the normal virus strains.