As the year 2004 progressed, so did conditions favoring thestart of an influenza pandemic. The first warning came in January,when Thailand and Vietnam reported fatal human cases of avianinfluenza caused by the H5N1 strain of influenza A virus. Thatstrain was already notorious for its pandemic potential, revealedduring an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 and later in a smallernumber of human cases in 2003.
With the H5N1 strain now endemic in birds in large parts ofAsia, the probability that this potential for a pandemic willbe realized has increased. Recent laboratory and epidemiologic. . . [Full Text of this Article]
Source Information
From the Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva.
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