Page 31 - ENGLISH 9

Dr. Imran : Bird flu is the commonly used term for avian influenza
which is a viral infection transmitted from bird to bird.
Particularly, a deadly strain of bird flu-H5N1 continues to
spread among poultry in different parts of Asia and Europe.

Reporter : What exactly is H5N1? Would you mind telling us how it
affects humans?

Dr. Imran : Not at all. Technically, H5N1 is a highly pathogenic avian
influenza (HPAI) virus. It’s as deadly to most birds as to hu-
mans and other mammals that catch the virus from birds.
Although the virus is not easily transmitted in the same
ways as most human flu bugs, H5N1 has killed nearly 60%
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of those infected since the first human case in the late 90s.
It is seen transmitted among people like butchers and poul-
try farm workers who have had exceptionally close contact
with the infected poultry. Besides, no effective medicine
has so far been discovered.

Reporter : The spread of this flu seems to be so fast it is. Is it
transferred by air? I wonder if you could tell us how it
spreads so fast.

Dr. Imran : Yes, certainly. Actually the flu virus is not transmitted
through respiration. Most notably the natural carriers of bird
flu viruses are migratory water fowls like the wild ducks.
The infection can later spread from wild fowls to domestic
ones. During 2011, the disease got widely spread in Asia.
Nepal too could not remain away from its dark shadow as
its carriers are the birds that may fly hundreds of miles in a
single day.

Reporter : Could you possibly tell us how humans get bird flu,
doctor?
Dr. Imran : As I told you earlier, humans catch the flu by close contact
with birds or bird droppings. Some have been reported to
have caught the virus from cleaning or plucking infected
birds. Let me make it clear this way. Think a person with
an open wound or cut on their hand handles the infected
poultry; he/ she can get infected by the virus that gets in
their blood through the wound or cut. Others have been
infected after swimming or bathing in water contaminated
with the droppings of infected birds. People don’t catch

26 English class 9