Another 2 Brits test positive with bird flu amid unprecedented outbreak sweeping the world 

What is it?

Bird flu is a contagious form of flu that spreads among birds.

In rare cases, it can be transmitted to humans through close contact with a dead or live infected bird.

This includes touching infected birds, their droppings or bedding. Humans can also get bird flu if they kill or prepare infected poultry to eat.

Wild birds are carriers, especially through migration.

As they clump together to reproduce, the virus quickly spreads and is then carried to other parts of the world.

New species usually appear first in Asia, from where more than 60 species of shorebirds, waders and waterfowl migrate to Alaska to mingle with migratory birds from the US. Others go west and infect European species.

Which species are currently proliferating?

H5N1 and H3N8.

So far, as of September 2021, the H5N1 virus has been detected worldwide in some 80 million birds and poultry – double the previous record set the previous year.

Not only is the virus spreading rapidly, it is also killing at an unprecedented level, leading some experts to say it is the deadliest strain yet.

Millions of chickens and turkeys in the UK have been culled or quarantined.

But earlier this year, on March 27, the World Health Organization (WHO) also learned that a Chinese woman was the first person ever to die from the H3N8 strain.

The 56-year-old woman from southern Guangdong province was the third person known to be infected with the H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, according to WHO.

Although rare in humans, H3N8 is common in birds, but it causes little to no signs of disease.

It has also infected other mammals.

Can bird flu infect humans?

Yes, but since 2003 only 873 human cases of bird flu have been reported to the World Health Organization.

The risk to humans is estimated to be ‘low’.

But people are urged not to touch sick or dead birds because the virus is deadly, killing 56 percent of people it manages to infect.