Symptoms and Treatment of Bird Flu
Flu bird is one of the types of diseases caused by influenza virus. This virus attacks the birds including poultry birds like ducks, chickens and turkey. Before jumping to the symptoms and treatment of flu bird, first let’s have a look at the history of this disease and figure out how this disease is transferred from one bird to another bird.
During late 1990s, a deadly virus started to spread among birds causing serious disease and deaths of birds. Medical experts call this virus as highly pathogenic avian influenza which means very severe influenza. Flu bird is mainly found in the birds of Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
History
Flu bird is transferred from one bird to another bird through infected birds shedding the virus in their saliva, nasal secretions and droppings. A healthy bird receives the virus from infected bird when it comes into contact with contaminated secretions such as cages or feces from the infected bird. The symptoms of flu bird include mild drops in egg production, failure of multiple major organs and death.
Features
In the year 1997, first human being got infected with flu bird virus. After then, hundreds of flu bird cases have been identified among human beings and many people have died due to this virus. Now let’s see how this virus affects human beings. Humans may receive this virus while caring for infected birds, killing infected birds, or eating infected birds. Although it is difficult for this virus to attack human beings but still in some cases there is a severe risk that a human can be infected by flu bird. These risks include indirect or direct exposure to bird feces, contact with unwashed eggs from infected birds and water contaminated by poultry feces. There are some rare cases of transfer of this virus from one human to another human so; the infected person is also a risk factor for spreading this disease.
Tips and comments
Now let’s discuss some of the major symptoms of flu bird found in humans. The symptoms start to show up after two to eight days of being infected with the virus. These symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle ache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea and eye infections. Ultimately these minor problems may result in pneumonia or respiratory failure.
In order to get the proper treatment of flu bird, obviously early diagnosis is a condition. For the diagnosis doctors strongly recommend the routine check up. Patients with influenza A positive depicts that they are infected with this virus. But some other specialized tests have been introduced for the diagnosis of this disease which include Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test that identify the avian strains in human body. For the treatment of flu bird, some antiviral medications are recommended which include Oseltamivir and Zanamivir. But more studies are being carried on to make these medications more effective.
It is said that prevention is better than cure, so do prevent yourself from this and other diseases. In order to prevent yourself from flu bird, avoid contact with the infected birds, if the virus has been detected in your region.
