Origins of the Flu
Why do so many flu outbreaks begin in Asia?
Hoda Hai writes: As to why many flu outbreaks begin in Asia, there are several reasons. First, birds and water fowl are able to carry the flu virus and sometimes not even affect the host organism. Asia is known for the water fowl markets that leave a home for the flu virus to mutate into a form that affects humans.
Once the human form of the virus is available, the fact that officials try to cover things up as well as debatable farming practices only allow the problem to grow faster. Also, the Chinese government tried to stop the spread by vaccinating the birds with H5N1 viruses which had no effect. If this was not a good match for the already existing virus, it may be able to replicate itself even though it was orininally inactivated and birds would show no signs of the disease. The unnoticed spread as well as the vaccine-resistant strain advantage allow for the rapid growth of these pandemics.
Sean, Ashley, Marty, Joe, and Josh write: Birds and water fowl in particular are able to carry the flu virus, sometimes even to no ill affect to the host. Asia which is notorious for their live fowl markets provide a virtual haven for the flu virus until it is able to mutate into a form that can affect humans. Once the virus has mutated to infect humans a combination of official cover-ups and questionable farming practices have allowed the problem to snowball. That is not to say that America would have been totally forthright about such a problem, obviously no country wants that kind of a negative image, but possibly America may have been more proactive in regards to finding a solution.
Another reason that a flu virus is able to get out of hand in Asia is due to a miscalculated preventative solution. Chinese officials began vaccinating birds with inactivated H5N1 virus, but if the vaccine is not a good match for the virus (as is the case with the H5N1 strain), it can still replicate, but this fact wouldn’t be noticed because most animals don’t show signs of the disease. This causes two major problems, one the virus is able to spread unnoticed, and also any virus resistant to that vaccine now will have a competitive advantage over other non-resistant strains.
Finally, in June 2005, “New Scientist Reported” that the H5N1 in East Asia was already resistant to a major class of antivirals, the adamantanes, because Chinese farmers had fed them to poultry.
Daniel Szyprowski writes: So many flu outbreaks begin in Asia because of the high number of domesticated birds on the continent.
Candace Morrison writes: The first outbreak of the most recent form of the Avian Flu virus, H5N1, was reported in Hong Kong in 1997. Eighteen cases of the bird
flu were reported at this time, six of those cases resulted in the
death of the patient. Since 2003, the virus has appeared in
approximately eight countries with a total number of 105 human
casualties (WHO). In contrast, during the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu
pandemic approximately fifty million deaths were reported. This fifty
million number has been set as high as 100 million by some observers.
During the 1918 pandemic, nearly one third of the entire global
population was affected. Since AIDS was discovered in 1981, over 25
million people have died of the virus. This number is as recent as
January 2006.
Candace and Vineeth also write: The first and the foremost reason is the lack of public
hygiene in the Asian countries and therefore, the surrounding
environment is not properly clean. Most often, the birds and other
animals, excrete their waste in improper places such as waterbeds.
People come into contact with these water beds very often in some
areas. In some cases people bathe in these polluted areas and therefore
acquire the harmful microorganisms. Aquatic animals such as ducks and
geese are hosts for this virus and again, people come in to frequent
contact with these animals.
The second reason that comes into play is the population.
The Asian countries are very highly populated. Once a person acquires
flu and since this strain is transmissible, it spreads quickly to
people. Also, the lack of hygiene the people maintain aggravates the
pandemic in these countries.
We can also refer to the news in china which recently
reported that, less than one percent of the population has received the
flu vaccination. The percent of the people vaccinated in the United
States is 27%.
One of the possible solutions is to educate the people in
these countries regarding the aftermath of improper hygiene and the
some ways to maintain a clean environment. When this is done, we can
possibly reduce the vast transmission of the virus.
In order to know more about the victims and their bodies we
need to perform an autopsy. In some cases, people’s customs prevents
the researchers from performing an autopsy which leaves some questions
unanswered.