# 4390
Many of the common illnesses we think of as `human’ diseases actually began in other species, and only later migrated to humans.
Influenza, as most of you know, is native to aquatic birds – but jumped species thousands of years ago and many strains have adapted to humans.
Babesiosis, Borrelia (Lyme), Nipah, Hendra, Malaria, Hantavirus, ebola,Leptospirosis, Q-Fever, bird flu . . . the list of zoonotic diseases is extensive and growing.
The age of emerging infectious diseases in humans really began in earnest about 10,000 years ago when man began to domesticate – and live in close proximity to – other animals.
The scourge of Tuberculosis, which now infects 1/3rd of humanity, probably jumped to humans when man began to coral and raise its traditional hosts; goats and cattle. Measles appears to have evolved from canine distemper and/or the Rinderpest virus of cattle.
Michael Greger in his Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching video, goes into considerable detail on the evolution of zoonotic diseases. The video is terrific, as is his book (available free online).
Swine flu (A/H1N1/2009) , which emerged nearly a year ago, was just the latest example of a species jump, this time from pigs to man. Fortunately, novel H1N1 has not turned out to be the highly virulent virus that some feared.
The same cannot be said for bird flu, which has killed roughly half of those known to be infected. While the H5N1 virus has yet to adapt well enough to humans to pose an epidemic threat, each new human infection is another opportunity for it to learn.
In the wake of yesterday’s report of Vietnam’s first bird flu death of 2010, we get this warning that residents should be on the alert for `animal diseases’ that may erupt in that country over the coming months.
After a truly horrendous 2004-2005, Vietnam managed to largely curtail the spread of H5N1 in 2006 and the first half of 2007. For about 18 months they were viewed as the model of successful containment.
Since mid-2007, however, bird flu has been making a comeback in Vietnam, and there are fears that if steps aren’t taken, they could see large outbreaks in poultry.
Animal disease warning issued as bird flu kills Mekong resident
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health reported the first human bird flu death this year on Friday, prompting an animal health official to warn that animal health diseases could sweep the country in 2010.
The 38-year-old victim from the Mekong Delta Tien Giang Province was killed February 23, soon before Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed she had tested positive with the H5N1 virus. The victim’s name has not been released.
She had killed and processed sick chicken before getting sick on February 13.
The victim was hospitalized eight days after that at Sa Dec Hospital in the nearby Dong Thap Province when her condition became worse. She was diagnosed with severe viral pneumonia.
Also on Friday, Hoang Van Nam, acting head of the Animal Health Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said bird flu outbreaks have been reported in Nam Dinh and Dien Bien Provinces in the north, Khanh Hoa in the central region, and Ca Mau and Soc Trang in the Mekong Delta.
Khanh Hoa was added last to the list after 770 chickens in Ninh Hoa District and 6,000 quails in Van Ninh District got sick.
Chicken in Ca Mau were detected with the H5N1 virus in late January and nearly 200 ducks have contracted the virus recently.
“There’s very high risk bird flu will spread to other areas around the country, especially the Mekong Delta,” Nam said.
Delta farmers are harvesting their winter-spring crop and letting their ducks roam free to clean spilling rice seeds.
Nam said that can easily lead to outbreaks of bird flu.
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