“Bird flu will be the next pandemic unless health officials take 6 critical steps, experts say”
BY Carolyn Barber
“This is how pandemics start,” Rick Bright, the renowned immunologist, vaccine researcher and former federal health official, tells Fortune. “We’ve had months to prepare, to activate and expand surveillance, to educate people about the risk, and even to make vaccines available that can help to reduce the risk of the current form of the virus.
“I hope that this death is not minimized or blamed on underlying medical conditions,” Bright adds. “The virus is changing quickly. We need to step up the pace of all efforts to track it and update our medical countermeasures to be ready when it pops.”
to read the full article go to
https://fortune.com/well/2025/01/09/bird-flu-next-pandemic-steps-prevent-spread/
“As 1st bird flu death reported in US, what could happen with virus in 2025.”
By Mary Kekatos
“Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said he believes there is a more likely scenario of the virus becoming more transmissible: an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time.?
He said this could lead to the virus “reassorting” to produce a hybrid, or recombinant, virus that could then transmit more easily from person to person.”
to read the full article goto
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/1st-bird-flu-death-reported-us-happen-virus/story?id=117417561
“Is bird flu the next pandemic? What to know after the first H5N1 death in the US”
By Brenda Goodman
“Scientists think H5N1 infects the eyes because flu viruses enter cells through sugars on their surface called sialic acids. Birds – and human eyes – primarily have alpha 2,3 sialic acid receptors on their cells. But a different kind of sialic acid receptor, alpha 2,6, is more prevalent in the human respiratory tract. Human flu viruses, including those that cause seasonal influenza, have evolved to infect cells through alpha 2,6 receptors.
Given enough time in the human body, the bird flu virus has shown the ability to change to become better at infecting different kinds of cells and tissues, spreading from the eyes to the respiratory tract, for example.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/health/bird-flu-h5n1-pandemic-risk-explained/index.html?cid=ios_app
“US to build new stockpile of bird flu vaccine for poultry”
By Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek
“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said such deployment would not be possible in the short term, in part due to trade risks. Many countries ban imports of vaccinated poultry over concerns the vaccine could mask the presence of the virus.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-build-new-stockpile-bird-flu-vaccine-poultry-2025-01-08/
“What We Know About HMPV, the Common Virus Spreading in China”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/health/hmpv-virus-china.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare