The world was “on the edge of a precipice” because of the danger of bird flu mutating into a global human pandemic.
This warning was given during FairPlay’s bird flu seminar by microbiologist Prof Robert Bragg. Bird flu was already spreading from birds to animals and humans, but had not reached the stage of airborne human-to-human transmission.
“If avian influenza gets into humans and spreads, we could have a pandemic of historic proportions,” he said. For humans, bird flu could be more deadly than covid had been.
He stressed that controlling the disease during outbreaks was essential to limit the spread of the virus and thus the risk of mutation. That made continued biosecurity measures, including the use of disinfectants, essential at chicken farms. Vaccination would provide an additional layer of protection.
“Vaccination will give us a better chance of protecting birds, and protecting people, and should be done as a matter of priority,” he said.
The top three killer diseases globally had been smallpox, plague and influenza. With the first two now controlled, influenza, including bird flu, was the biggest threat.
The fourth threat was HIV and fifth – and rising – was the problem of drug-resistant bacteria, or hospital “super bugs”. These could kill 10 million people annually in the not too distant future, Bragg said.
Scientists were watching for the next influenza pandemic, which was now 30 years overdue. The next global pandemic was labelled “disease X” because nobody knew what it would be, but it would probably be a form of influenza.
