Bird Flu Infects 44 Post by: Addison Norman

Bird Flu Infects 44

Post by: Addison Norman

            Recently, there has been a major outbreak of a new strand of bird flu, H7H9. Before the outbreak the flu was never detected in humans. So far there have been 44 people infected with it, and 11 have died. The most recent case is of a 7 year old girl. Her father interacts with the live poultry business that leads to a main question, where does the flu come from? From the cases of flu it shows that H7H9 isn’t passed human to human. The spotlight is now on poultry. World Health Organization has been making efforts by keeping an eye on cases and poultry. Many cities throughout eastern China have banned trading live poultry for the time. Also, 30 of 1,000 birds are being tested for infection, and if one is infected then all the birds can’t be traded. Because of this outbreak the economy has been affected. There has been a decrease in poultry sales across the country, and the price of poultry has gone down around 50% in some areas of China. 

            I remember doing a current event a few weeks ago on the new avian flu. When I did that report only 3 were infected, and not many people were worried that the flu would spread. It’s crazy how much H7H9 has spread though. I hope officials are able to stop the flu before it starts to spread to other countries, and I’m glad China is taking so many precautions.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/world/asia/china-bird-flu-hong-kong/index.html?hpt=wo_c2