Do you know that the Influenza type H5N1, which had its outbreak in
Hong Kong in 1997, is the first known avian flu that can infect human?
This kind of virus was actually first found in mainland China in
1996. The virus killed some geese but didn’t catch much
attention because it was merely deemed as normal avian flu which could affect
birds and poultries only.
…Until a 3-year-old boy in Hong Kong died from it. The boy suffered
from multiple organ failure and his blood even clotted! The specialists in Hong
Kong could not determine what was happening and had to forward the virus sample
to over sea labs and CDC.
The result they had, unexpectedly, shocked the whole medical field.
That is because doctors and scientists thought that only virus type H1, H2 and
H3 could cause flu in humans. But this time, the boy was killed by a flu caused
by virus type H5, which was thought to only affect birds.
The case led to deep concern of health organisations all over the
world. A total of 18 Hongkoners were infected and 6 of them died. Fearing the
spread of the disease, the Hong Kong government had no choice but to killed over
1 million chickens and had to pause importing live chickens from the mainland.
Two years later, a new virus strain H9N2 was found in Hong Kong. The
virus keeps on mutating from then on and the nightmare of humanity continues…
沒有留言:
張貼留言