The talk of bird flu which had reached a feverish pitch early in the year seems to have abated, leading the experts to wonder if the virus has actually beaten a retreat.
Experts opine the reason behind this could be the climate. Bird flu is dynamic in the winter months, as the virus can survive much longer when the temperature is low.The H5N1 virus which had earlier restricted itself to Southeast Asia had spread its wings far and wide, to Germany, Egypt, and Nigeria, and a flu pandemic loomed large on the horizon.
Dr. Malik Peiris, a microbiology professor at Hong Kong University said, "Many of us are holding our breath to see what happens in the winter.H5N1 spread very rapidly last year. So the question is, was that a one-off incident?" Some experts felt that vaccination has made detection extremely difficult. It is well known that vaccinations cut the number of virus in circulation, but lesser levels of the virus may pose problems albeit of a lesser degree, and hence there may be no reports of major outbreaks or bird deaths.
Even though bird-flu has not reached pandemic proportions, yet it is not a signal to throw caution to the winds.
Source-Medindia
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