A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. A flu pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity, and for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness, and can sweep across the country and around the world in very short time.
It is difficult to predict when the next influenza pandemic will occur or how severe it will be. Wherever and whenever a pandemic starts, everyone around the world is at risk. Countries might, through measures such as border closures and travel restrictions, delay arrival of the virus, but the likelihood of stopping it is very small.
Health professionals are concerned that the continued spread of a highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus across eastern Asia and other countries represents a significant threat to human health. The H5N1 virus has raised concerns about a potential human pandemic because it is especially virulent, it is being spread by migratory birds, it can be transmitted from birds to mammals and in some limited circumstances to humans, and (like other influenza viruses) it continues to evolve.
The H5N1 variant so far has been contained primarily among bird populations in parts of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It has not acquired the ability to spread efficiently from human to human, nor has the virus been reported in the U.S. among birds or humans.
Of the approximately 200 people known to have contracted the virus worldwide since 2003, about half have died. The vast majority of those who contracted the virus, however, are believed to have contracted it through close contact with infected birds, not from other people.
U.S. federal government responses are tied to World Health Organization pandemic alert levels, which are in turn tied to current avian flu-related developments around the world.
An informed and prepared public and workforce are essential to minimizing the health effects of a pandemic. Personal and family awareness and preparedness is the first and most important line of defense.
To learn about what Sandia is doing to prepare for an avian flu outbreak in the U.S., please see What Sandia is doing.
To learn about how you and your family can prepare for a public health emergency, please see What you can do.
For more information about the H5N1 virus, please see the following sites: