Does anyone know, have birds been dying from various bird flu’s for generations? I know this particular lethal strain showed up in 1997. But are birds dying at record rates just this last year? I know the human cases seem to have doubled this year but what about birds? I keep reading about thousands of bird deaths. Has this always been the case or has bird deaths increased tremendously? Also, have the 45 deaths in Indonesia all been since May of this year?
My last question refers to humans.
Actually, according to the World health Organization’s “official” figures (lab-confirmed), there have been 44 deaths in Indonesia, 11 in 2005 and 33 so far in 2006.
The latest table is here.
Are you asking about H5N1 or “bird flu” in general which covers a broad spectrum of flu strains that by definition - all begin as avian flu. Influenza viruses are all bird viruses that eventually jump species and infect humans and other mammals potentially.
So if you are asking about bird flu in general - the number of bird deaths and the span of time that those deaths have occurred - is beyond the recorded history of mankind to go back and add up. If you are interested in H5N1 specifically, there should be some data out there on the first recorded infestation of birds identified, as well as the number of estimated deaths associated with it - and of course we have the WHO count of “official” people deaths from H5N1 - but of course we all know that if it is not tested … it aint in the count.
I guess what I mainly want to know is has the death of birds from H5N1 actually dramatically increased over the last year? Sorry my questions are phrased weird. I know what I want to ask but am not sure how to word it.
Sarge- thanks for correcting me on the human deaths. Sorry for the error!
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