Introductions on H5N1

H5N1 known as bird flu has been causing havoc around the world for the last few years. It is a disease of birds and it has an impressive mortality rate. For humans H5N1 is affecting the food industries associated with poultry but H5N1 is also seen as a potential human killer. For instance half of humans infected by H5N1 die from the disease.

This is one impressive disease that is causing alarm and dismay amongst humans on a daily basis. An interesting war has been raging between humans and a little virus for several years. H5N1 was a virus of the 1990's that briefly appeared then vanished again until 2003 when it appeared in East Asia. During 2003 and 2004 most of the world dismissed H5N1 as an East Asian problem and failed to address it when H5N1 was mostly confined to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Little help came and Vietnam lost the battle. During 2005 H5N1 invaded other countries. China, Russia and many other asian countries. H5N1 moved west and north and by Feb 2006 was in Europe, India, most of the Middle East and Africa.

One thinks that in the new global village everyone would be working together against this threat. Umm you would be wrong! Everyone is doing their own thing, keeping secret about the scale of their problems for economic, security, political or other selfish reasons. Teamwork is an alien concept to the global village. Not that the virus cares as it is happily establishing itself in every nation of the world and killing at least half of everything it comes into contact with.

H5N1 is very interesting to me as it is history in the making. H5N1 has the hallmarks of something with potential to do a big dent in human population numbers around the world. This is my record of a war. H5N1 v's mankind. H5N1 is winning.