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BIRD flu is “dangerously close” to triggering the next human pandemic, experts have warned.
Scientists raised concerns after a person in the US caught the disease from a cow, suggesting the highly pathogenic H5N1 is becoming better at spreading.
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The new case, discovered in Texas, spurred an emergency briefing attended by bird flu researchers, doctors and officials from government agencies.
Dr Suresh Kuchipudi, a bird flu researcher in Pittsburgh, warned: “This virus [has been] on the top of the pandemic list for many, many years and probably decades.
“And now we are getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic,” MailOnline reports.
UK expert Prof James Wood, from the University of Cambridge and Co-Director of Cambridge Infectious Diseases, suggested, however, that this case by itself is not a cause for concern.
“The finding of a single human case in the US does not indicate that the virus is about to become a human pandemic,” he told the Sun.
“There has been a huge degree of human exposure with this clade of viruses over the last three years and what is remarkable is that so few human cases have been detected,” he added.
In recent years, H5N1 has killed millions of wild birds and poultry across the world.
It has also started to jump to other animals, including cats, bears, foxes, mink and sea lions.
There is no evidence that bird flu can be transmitted between people.
However, experts fear the sheer scale of the current spread could give the virus more opportunities to evolve, enabling H5N1 to better spread between mammals – and potentially humans.
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Cows were added to that ever-growing list last week, when the US reported H5N1 infections in dairy herds.
Since then, cases have been confirmed or are under investigation in five states – Texas, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Idaho.
Research shows the death rate in humans can be as high as 60 per cent.
John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant, said: “This appears to be 100 times worse than Covid, or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate.
“Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops.”
At least 887 people have been infected with bird flu in the past 20 years – and 462 of these died.
For comparison, Covid currently kills less than 0.1 per cent of the people it infects, although at the beginning of the pandemic, this was around 20 per cent.
There is no human bird flu jab on the market, but the UK government is said to be drawing up plans to stockpile regular flu vaccine in case of a pandemic.
It would be the first time it has been done for the disease, regarded as a top threat for the next global health emergency.
There have been five confirmed cases of bird flu in the UK since 2022.
The risk appears higher in the Far East, with two deaths in Cambodia and at least one “cluster” of cases that raised fears of human-to-human transmission.
In new Government guidance issued last month, Brits were advised to stay at least two meters from wild birds over bird flu fears.
The UK Heath Security Agency’s (UKHSA) advice to stay at least two metres away from wild birds was drawn up for people who “need to handle” the animals.
What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?
What is bird flu?
Bird flu is a well-known infectious disease of poultry and wild birds.
Other animals, such as seals, otters, wild dogs, and foxes, have also been catching the illness.
This month, a polar bear from Alaska died after contracting the H5N1 virus.
The H5N1 bug is the most prevalent strain in circulation at the moment.
Experts worry that the sheer scale of the current spread could give the virus more opportunities to mutate, enabling H5N1 to better spread in humans.
The UKHSA said people with the highest risk of exposure to infected birds are contacted daily to monitor for the development of any symptoms.
In the asymptomatic surveillance programme run by the UKHSA, poultry workers are asked to swab their nose and throat to check for flu during the 10 days after exposure.
In some cases, they may also be asked to have finger prick blood tests to see if antibodies against avian flu are picked up.
Anyone in contact with a person with bird flu may also be tested.
They may be offered antiviral drugs to protect themselves from infection and lessen the chance of passing it
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