Bird flu is not a major topic of conversation nowadays, unless of course one happens to live in a country such as Indonesia where the disease is still widespread. For the past few months there have been few new outbreaks of bird flu and so many people are suggesting that the threat of a pandemic is no more. The fact is that the H5N1 virus is still present in different wild bird and domestic bird populations, especially in Asia, and potentially it can still do tremendous damage wherever and whenever it gets into the domestic poultry population of other countries.
The last reported human death due to the H5N1 virus in the world was in Indonesia in October. It is in this country that a concerted battle is being fought against bird flu.
In North America avian influenza surveillance activities have been intensified and in the Caribbean many countries are now initiating similar plans and it can be said that almost all countries of the region have already conducted or are conducting some level of surveillance for the virus.We now live in the information age so we have no excuse for being uninformed about the H5N1 virus and the disease it causes or can cause in both wild birds and domestic poultry.
There are thousands of websites and blogs dedicated to bird flu, some are well written and very informative, others less so. Many of these websites give a daily update of the bird flu situation around the world while others are dedicated to preventive and other measures that we can take in the event of a human pandemic. We owe it to ourselves to be informed and to remain current on the status of this potentially serious virus as it moves from region to region or from country to country.
