Russia reports first human cases of H5N8 bird flu

BNO News ^ | 2-20-21 | BNO News

[dynachrome]

Seven people at a poultry farm in southern Russia have been infected with H5N8 bird flu, officials say, making it the first time that the highly pathogenic virus has been found in humans. There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

“Today, I want to inform you about an important scientific discovery made by scientists at the Vector scientific center,” Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s consumer health watchdog, said on Saturday. “The first cases of human infection with [avian influenza A(H5N8)] have been laboratory confirmed.”

The virus was found in seven employees at a poultry farm in southern Russia, where outbreaks of H5N8 were reported in the bird population in December 2020. Popova described the human cases as “mild,” according to the Interfax news agency.

“The virus can be transmitted from birds to humans, it has overcome the interspecies barrier,” Popova said. “As of today, this variant of the influenza virus is not being transmitted from person to person. Only time will tell how quickly future mutations will allow it to overcome this barrier.”

[dynachrome]

Some fear porn for the day. "mild cases"

[dynachrome]

Birdy covid ebola for all!

[BradyLS]

“We ‘ave t’keep the maks on till 2023 cuzza Russian chicken flu! Folla th’science!”

[null and void]

Fauci rubs his hands in glee...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

Quarantine the sick. Protect the vulnerable. Free everyone else.

[exDemMom]

Some bird flus cause deadly disease. Others have caused mild eye infections.

As long as they remain bird flus, human to human transmission is very rare. Once they make a specific shift to become mammalian flus, then they can spread easily among humans. But that shift makes them less deadly.

I’ve never heard of an H5N8 infecting humans before. But, with influenza, anything can happen.

[pangaea6]

Wait til the Wuhan lab gets ahold of this strain. They can make something happen

[delta7]

Bubonic plague and Ebola is resurfacing and ramping up again in Africa. Now there is some pestilence with some “ horsepower”, not like the 99.8 percent survivable Covid flu.

[VTenigma]

Well at least all that “gain of function” research didn’t go to waste. /s

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[gleeaikin]

Some years ago I read of one danger to Europe and us from bird flu was the destruction of the Iraq marshes by Saddam Hussein. These marshes were a major stop over and resting place for migrating birds on their way to Europe and Africa. Loss of marshes meant they were resting closer to human density areas and as a result of poorer quality rest were more vulnerable to illness. Decided to see what progress was being made in restoration. Found this link, and information that environmental types were working with oil/gas types to support a major oil area while also protecting the marsh.

https://www.wetlands.org/casestudy/conserving-and-restoring-the-iconic-marshes-of-southern-iraq/

[gleeaikin]

After readin my link at #10, I decided to go back to Google/Iraq and read some more. The link below is an interesting interview with an Iraqi/US citizen who decided to go back and try to help after Saddam was dead. As a hydrolic engineer, he decided to work on restoring the Iraq Marshes. He details all he has had to do to advance the project, dealing with the bureacracy and competing economic interests to develop the most effective ways to restore an area once destroyed that now has to deal with changed conditions. Since I have been thinking a lot about the Texas crisis, I am looking at this for useful ideas for change that works for as many people as possible.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/restoring-iraqs-marshes

[wgmalabama]

I am sure Fauci can make another billion of of weaponizing this virus and it’s new untested biological treatment labeled as a “vaccine”.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[exDemMom]

Wait til the Wuhan lab gets ahold of this strain. They can make something happen

It's not that easy. Influenza viruses have eight genes, on eight separate pieces of RNA. Those genes can be mixed between different influenza viruses, but the result is unpredictable.

Some researchers did a study a few years ago in which they mixed genes from two different influenza viruses in every possible combination. Out of all of the combinations, only a couple were more virulent than the original viruses. Most of the combos were either less virulent or non-infectious.

Also, the H5N8 is a bird flu, which evolved to infect birds. Influenza infection is different in humans than in birds. Typically, when an influenza virus evolves to infect humans instead of birds, it causes less severe disease.