Expert weighs in on how much fear people should have about bird flu

TAMPA, Fla. — Health officials around the country have been watching avian influenza, also known as H5N1, or bird flu, very closely in the past several months.

“These influenza strains can jump species. They can go from animals to humans,” said Dr. Sten Vermund, Dean of the USF College of Public Health and Chief Medical Officer of the Global Virus Network.

Bird flu is highly infectious and typically has a high mortality rate in humans. The CDC reports that so far, there have been 67 confirmed human cases in the U.S. and 1 death.

So, how worried should we be?

“I think this is not the cause for alarm here in Florida,” said Vermund.

However, he said recent reports show the virus could be mutating and adapting. Federal health officials are most worried about this, as the bird flu has the serious potential to become a pandemic.

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Vermund is part of a group tracking this virus, watching for what’s called a “reassortment event.”

“What that means is that a human flu virus and an avian flu virus infect the same person. And those viruses can exchange genetic information and create a virus that is unfamiliar to our immune system but is adapted for human spread. And that’s how we’ve had pandemic influenza,” said Vermund.

Currently, though, the human risk remains low, but experts are staying prepared.

While officials are unsure how everyone who’s been infected was exposed to the virus, the vast majority of the confirmed cases have been in cattle and poultry workers, indicating that the virus is not spreading easily between people at this point.

“If we start seeing human-to-human transmission, that would be a very worrisome sign,” said Vermund.

Health officials at the federal level and in several states are monitoring this closely to see if anything changes.

The CDC has said that you should be more worried about the regular flu, as its cases are surging, than the bird flu right now.