Bird Flu Uncovered: The Silent Threat Lurking in Our Backyards and How You Can Outsmart It Today
What about eggs? “Be careful with eggs,” the World Health Organization has warned. “Eggs from infected poultry could also be contaminated with the [H5N1] virus…”
Mutating and Getting More Virulent
Within a single individual, a virus evolves, adapts, learns. It hits dead ends and tries something new, slowly notching up mutations that may lock into place the ability to effectively survive in, and transmit between, people. Every single person who gets infected presents a risk of spawning the pandemic virus. Describes one virologist, “You’re playing Russian roulette every time you have a human infection.” Experts fear that as more and more people become infected, a virus will finally figure out the combination—the right combination of mutations to spread not just in one elevator or building, but in every building, everywhere, around the globe. Then it won’t just be peasant farmers in Vietnam dying after handling dead birds or raw poultry—it will be New Yorkers, Parisians, Londoners, and people in every city, township, and village in the world dying after shaking someone’s hand, touching a doorknob, or simply inhaling in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s happened before, and it may soon happen again.
Post Comment