The global threat of avian flu

The increasing number of infections among cows and workers on dairy farms in the United States could indicate that the H5N1 virus is moving ever closer to humans. There is hardly a single region in the world that is currently free of the presence of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus, capable of causing serious illness. Last February, Spanish scientists embarked on an expedition to Antarctica convinced that this virus had crossed any distance or land borders and there, in the most extreme conditions of temperature and isolation on the planet, they confirmed the presence of the virus in samples of dead skuas. The suspicion is that the H5N1 virus is behind the bird deaths recorded during the Antarctic summer and the current very high figure of more than 500 dead Adelie penguins discovered by Federation University in Australia. In just two years, this virus, which is transmitted by wild birds, has travelled all over the planet and is leaving an incredible trail of death ...