How worried should humans be about bird flu?

The Inquiry

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The H5N1 bird flu virus has spread from birds to dairy cattle in the United States where a number of agricultural workers have also been infected by it. This is thought to be the first time humans have caught the virus from another mammal and the first time the virus has been detected in cattle.

This unusual development is being tracked by virologists who have followed Bird Flu since it first emerged in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Since then, across the world millions of wild birds and poultry have died from the virus and over 400 human deaths worldwide have been linked to it. So it is a concern that the US outbreak has emerged in dairy cattle herds and that there has been some human infection - although there has been no person-to-person infection.

This Inquiry examines how the virus infects birds and mammals and what the potential is for further transmission to humans.

Contributors: Dr Erin Sorrell is a senior scholar and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US. Professor Wendy Barclay studies viruses at Imperial College London in the UK Dr Ed Hutchinson is a virologist at the MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in Scotland Dr Marc-Alain Widdowson leads the high threat pathogens group at the World Health Organisation in Europe.

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Phil Reevell Researcher: Katie Morgan Editor: Tara McDermott Sound: Nicky Edwards Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley

(Photo Cows queuing for their midway milking at United Dreams Dairy, in North Freedom, Wisconsin. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.0	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.0	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter
0:15.1	to people here, but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths. We have trained journalists, people who love digging through archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice.
0:31.3	So if you like this podcast head to BBC
0:33.8	signs where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the
0:38.1	UK. Welcome to the inquiry. I'm Charmincozia each week one question for expert witnesses and an answer.
0:46.3	March 2024 Texas USA. A cow on a commercial dairy farm is sick with flu.
0:54.0	It passes the virus on to one of the workers.
0:58.0	A few months later in May, more than a thousand miles away Michigan,
1:02.0	exactly the same thing happens on two different farms.
1:06.6	All three people get the same shock positive test results for H5N1, also known as avian or bird flu.
1:14.0	It's concerning because it's thought to be the first time humans have called it from another mammal.
1:22.0	It's also the first time the virus has been detected in cows.
1:28.0	The workers recovered, but since then, H5N1 has broken out in many dairy herds or many farms across many US states.
1:38.0	So this week we're asking how worried should humans be about bird flu.
1:46.0	Part one, flu on the farms.
1:50.0	I would say for the general population,
1:52.0	it is still exceptionally low risk for agricultural workforce for individuals who are interacting with animals there is a higher risk.
2:01.0	Dr. Errin Sorrell is a senior scholar and associate professor at Johns Hopkins
2:06.5	University in the US. So let's look at those cases with a virus crossed from
	...

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