UK Bird Flu Came From Mainland Europe
Written by Stuart Stevens | Thursday, 17 January 2008 | There is 1 comment
The Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the UK is still working on the virus
Scientists say that the bird flu virus found in Abbotsbury in Devon is an extremely close match to the bird flu strain which is known to have infected wild birds in the Czech Republic last summer. Bird flu experts say that the infected birds probably arrived in the United Kingdom just before Christmas as many birds fly to the UK when the weather gets very cold on the European continent.
The Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the United Kingdom is still working on the virus to see if they can get an exact match for it so that they can locate exactly where it came from. It is likely to have entered the UK in one of a number of bird species like a mallard, a widgeon, pochard, teal or possibly in gulls. Health officials are trying to control the virus and seem to have been able to do so at present.
On the other side of the globe in Indonesia a reminder of how dangerous the bird flu virus can be when it infects humans has appeared after a woman living just outside Jakarta died from the bird flu virus. This means that in Indonesia almost 100 people have died from the virus since it first surfaced in 2003. At the same time a teenager is battling for her life despite being given a dose of the Tamiflu drug which may be her only hope.
As of yet no human infections of the bird flu virus have been reported in the UK and the virus has been only limited to birds, however in the future if the virus becomes more contagious and mutates into a form which enables it to latch on to humans more easily a worldwide pandemic could start killing millions of people.
