Bird flu virus, '100 times worse than Covid', spreading, warn experts
According to World Health Organization, 52 out of every 100 patients infected with H5N1 virus have died since 2003, making its fatality rate over 50 per cent
A bird flu virus, which can prove to be “100 times worse than Covid”, is spreading in the world, experts have warned.
The virus is approaching a critical threshold and has the potential to cause a global pandemic, the US-based Daily Mail quoted researchers as saying at a recent briefing.
Pandemic coming?
Dr Suresh Kuchipudi, a prominent bird flu researcher in Pittsburgh in the US, warned that the H5N1 flu can cause a pandemic due to its ability to infect a wide range of mammals including humans.
“We are getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic,” he was quoted as saying.
“We are talking about a virus that is globally present, already infecting a range of mammals and is circulating… It is really high time that we are prepared,” he said.
Worse than Covid
Another expert, John Fulton, emphasised that the potential pandemic could be extremely severe.
Fulton, a pharmaceutical company consultant, said: “This appears to be 100 times worse than Covid or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate. Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the (fatality rate) drops.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, 52 out of every 100 patients infected with H5N1 virus have died since 2003, making its fatality rate over 50 per cent.
US outbreak
Meanwhile, the current Covid fatality rate is down to 0.1 per cent, from 20 per cent from the start of the pandemic.
Of the 887 reported bird flus cases, 462 have led to deaths, says WHO.
The Daily Mail report came soon after outbreaks of avian flu were reported in a poultry facility in Michigan and an egg producer in Texas, both in the US.