A Look At Bird Flu

I found this article on Reuters, and with all the hype about Bird Flu (H5N1) mutating and becoming the next flu pandemic, I thought it was time to give everyone a quick refresher course on the facts.

1. The latest outbreak of bird flu (H5N1) began in Asia in 2003.
2. Since then, H5N1 has been confirmed in 59 countries.
3. Since 2003, H5N1 has killed 190 people (out of 312 infected). Those people lived in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. For the record, that's a 60.9% mortality rate in humans.
4. Vietnam and Indonesia have had the most cases with a total of 121 deaths.
5. The first H5N1 outbreak occurred in Scotland, in 1959.
6. H5N1 is not alone. H7N7 spreads much easier than H5N1, but is far less potent. In fact, in 2003, 89 people were infected with the H7N7 virus, but only one died. That's a 1.1% mortality rate in humans.
7. The first known infection of H5N1 in humans occurred in 1997. Six people died when 18 people became infected in Hong Kong.

There, now we're all on the same page.