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article body word count (not including resource boxes):
part 1: 750; part 2: 698
character width (lines wrapped at):60
resource boxes:5 lines + link to part 2, and How To Prepare
For The Bird Flu
spellcheck: correct
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http://www.infostop.info/request-article/bird-virus/
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Avian Bird Flu: What You Need to Know, and How To Protect
Yourself and Your Loved Ones,
Part 1 of 2
Copyright 2006 DK Fynn
Avian bird flu will mutate and kill people you know, and
even your loved ones...unless you take action.
If you live in any urban area (especially in a city with
an airport or public transit system), you live in an
environment where a contagious airborne virus can spread
rapidly.
The purpose of this article is to inform you as to what
exactly bird flu is, to tell you why you are at risk, and
to tell you what you need to learn to minimize/lower your
risk of infection (if you plan on traveling, you need to
pay especially close attention).
So, What Is Avian Bird Flu?
To begin, I have to correct a misconception: this avian
bird flu isn't a just a flu, but something worse--it's a
virus. Influenza A Virus H5N1. Just as a computer virus is
a malicious program that spreads electronically, a virus is
simply two things:
1. A set of instructions to reproduce itself, regardless
of the symptoms, sickness and death it may bring.
2. A delivery mechanism. In our case, the virus can be
delivered through air, water, contaminated surfaces,
uncooked meat, feces, and dead carcases. Those are the
only ones we know of for now.
That's a good definition of what avian bird virus is.
It's symptoms include respiratory problems, major organ
failure, and death.
Before I tell you what the risk factors are, I want to
mention that the influenza of 1918 killed more people than
the Great War (WWI), that avian bird virus is more of a
threat than terrorism, and that H5N1 is the strain that has
gained the most attention.
How You're At Risk
Essentially, you're at risk by simply being a member of
the world community, unless you live on your own island
somewhere.
As I said, if you live in an urban area, you're at an
increased risk. If you're a health care worker anywhere in
the world, you're at an increased risk. If you're
traveling to Asia, one of the 8 infected European Union
countries, or to Nigeria, where the first African case of
bird virus is said to have been found, then you're
obviously at an even higher risk.
A key word to consider here is mutate. To mutate is
simply to change. A virus mutates when it changes it's
method of delivery and/or changes the species it can
infect.
So let's look at the avian bird virus.
It obviously spreads between birds. So it's bird-to-
bird. That's bad for the birds, but not too bad for us, is
it?
Well, did you know that bird virus also infects pigs and
horses? So it's bird-to-animal, or animal-to-animal. Is
that bad? Yes, when you consider that if a virus can
infect more than one species, then it can mutate from one
species to another.
Do you see where I'm getting at?
You've heard of people dying from avian bird virus. At
least the good thing is that it seems to only infect people
who come into direct contact with infected birds. So for
now, the virus is bird-to-human.
This is where the risk comes in.
The virus is bird-to-bird, but it is also able to go
from bird-to-animal. We know that it can go from bird-to-
human. This is proof that the virus can spread from one
species to another. The fear that the World Health
Organization, US President Bush, health leaders, and a
recent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show is...
Human-to-human spread of the virus.
If a virus can spread from one species to another, then
it can obviously spread among the same species. The fear
is that the virus will mutate (change) so that instead of
spreading from bird to human (which is the only way to
currently be infected), it will spread from human to human,
exactly how colds spread through the air. When you hear
H5N1 in the news, that is the strain of the virus that is
most likely to cause this. The H5N1 strain of the virus is
the most virulent (changing) strain of the virus there is.
When this mutation takes place, a pandemic will occur.
Human-to-human.
Part 2 of this article discusses:
1. Who's At The Greatest Risk?
2. How Your Government Is Supposed To Protect You
3. How To Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones
To Get Part 2, click here: [Webmaster: put link to part 2,
or link to:
http://www.infostop.info/what-is/virus/bird-flu-virus/p2/]
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com
More About DK Fynn: ===========================================================
DK Fynn is an information publisher and the webmaster of
www.InfoStop.Info. To read Part 2 from his site and learn
how to get a no-cost bird flu newsletter subscription, click here.
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