The H5N1 avian flu, first identified in 2020, has quickly spread among wild birds nationwide and has also infected commercial poultry and backyard flocks.
Disturbingly, the virus has now crossed into mammalian species, affecting cattle herds in four states and infecting a dairy worker in Texas. Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, a bird flu researcher, highlighted the imminent threat during a recent panel discussion, emphasizing the virus’s ability to infect various mammalian hosts, including humans.
“This virus [has been] on the top of the pandemic list for many, many years and probably decades,” Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, a bird flu researcher from Pittsburgh, said at a recent panel discussing the issue, according to the Daily Mail.
“And now we’re getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic.”
John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant, echoed these concerns, suggesting that the potential severity of the H5N1 virus could surpass that of COVID-19, particularly if it mutates further and maintains its high fatality rate. “This appears to be 100 times worse than COVID — or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate,” he said.
“Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops.”
With a fatality rate of around 52% among humans infected since 2003, according to the World Health Organization, the stakes of this looming threat are dire.
