Condition Care Guide

What is avian flu?
Avian influenza, commonly known as avian flu or bird flu, is an infectious viral disease that affects birds and human beings. A dangerous strain of the avian flu virus, H5N1, has been spreading in Asia since 2003 and has killed nearly 100 percent of the birds infected. Some humans have been affected; in most of these cases, the virus spread directly from infected birds to humans and in a few others, the virus was transmitted directly from person to person.

What are the symptoms of avian flu?
Symptoms of avian influenza in humans range from typical flu symptoms such as cough, sore throat and muscle ache but can also include eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases and other severe and life-threatening complications. Authorities don't know whether all human cases of avian flu are as severe as the relatively few that have been diagnosed and reported. Mild ones may have not come to medical attention. Of those cases that have been diagnosed, approximately 60 percent of the patients have died.

What are the causes of avian flu?

advertisement

The virus that causes avian flu does not readily infect humans, but it can pose a risk to those who come into direct contact with infected birds or with surfaces that have been contaminated with the birds' secretions or excretions. Bird flu is not transmitted through cooked food. According to the World Health Organization, no evidence indicates that anyone has become infected as a result of eating properly cooked poultry or poultry products, even when these foods were contaminated with the H5N1 virus.

Most of the reported human cases of avian flu have occurred among children and young adults who had direct contact with infected birds. In rare instances, however, the virus spreads from person to person. The big danger posed by avian flu is that the H5N1 virus could mutate into one capable infecting humans and spreading easily throughout the population. Since humans have no natural immunity to these infections, this viral change could lead to a worldwide pandemic. It is theorized that a similar series of events triggered the influenza pandemic of 1918.

What is the conventional treatment of avian flu?
No reliable treatment for avian flu is known, but the antiviral drugs Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir), which can reduce the severity and duration of seasonal flu in humans, may be helpful in combating bird flu. However, because so few people have been infected, there's not much evidence that these drugs will work. They are most effective if they are administered within 48 hours
after symptoms begin. Older antiviral drugs called M2 inhibitors might prove useful, but resistance to them can develop quickly, which would limit their effectiveness. So far, most fatal pneumonia seen in people infected with bird flu has stemmed from the effects of the virus, and cannot be treated with antibiotics. Still, according to the World Health Organization, antibiotics might help should pneumonia be complicated by a secondary bacterial infection of the lungs.

The best defense against bird flu would be a means of preventing it. A vaccine against the H5N1 virus is under development in several countries but is not ready for commercial production.

One promising advance against the disease, announced in September 2007 by a multinational team of researchers, was development of a new, fast test to detect the virus that causes avian flu. The test, which relies on a throat swab, is said to be four times faster and 50 times less expensive
than earlier tests.

What therapies does Dr. Weil recommend for avian flu?
Fortunately, avian flu has not yet become the widespread problem it could eventually pose. To protect yourself against all varieties of flu, take a daily antioxidant, multivitamin-mineral supplement, as well as astragalus, a well-known immune-boosting herb that can help ward off colds and flu. Be sure to wash your hands often and keep them away from your eyes and nose, and try to avoid contact with people who have respiratory illnesses. If you're in Asia or planning to travel to countries with known outbreaks of avian flu, be sure to avoid poultry farms, contact with animals in live food markets, and any surfaces that appear to be contaminated with feces or blood from poultry or other animals. And don't eat any local foods made with the blood of fowl, such as duck blood pudding.