Bird Flu (禽流感)

Bird flu has been on a rampage lately, with 17 outbreaks in China to-date. Europe was not spared this year. The last time it strikes close at home was back in 2003. At the time, poultry import from Malaysia was suspended by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). Prices soared sky high, and supermarket ran short of eggs. Singaporean (Young and old) felt the impact of it on their livelihood. It was no longer just a piece of news on TV.

The first human death due to the H5N1 virus was in August 1997 in Hong Kong. In that outbreak, 18 people were infected, six died and 1.5 million chickens were put to death. Since then, the world has been on the lookout of this virus strain.

I happen to came across an article on the net about the virus which had a medical definition of the H5N1 virus. Here it is (in Chinese):

H5N1禽流感病毒属于甲型流感病毒的一个高致病性亚型，其中的H和N分别代表病毒表面的两种蛋白质。
　　H是血凝素（hemagglutinin ) ，就如病毒的钥匙，它能打开和侵入人类或动物的细胞。
　　N是神经氨酸酶（neuraminidase)，其作用是破坏细胞，使病毒在感染者体内自由传播。N蛋白共有9个类型，分为N1—N9，H蛋白有15个类型，即H1—H15，不同的N蛋白和H蛋白结合，组成不同的病毒类型，毒性和传播速度也不同。
　　H5N1病毒就包括了H5蛋白和N1蛋白。H5N1病毒1961年首次在南非被发现，病毒的毒性很强，病禽的死亡率可达100%。


Source: zaobao.com

Let's pray and hope that it does not turn into an epidemic like the Spanish flu.