Influenza pandemics and avian flu

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7524.1066

BMJ 2005;331:1066-1069 (5 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7524.1066

Clinical review

Influenza pandemics and avian flu

Douglas Fleming, general practitioner¹

¹ Birmingham dfleming@rcgpbhamresunit.nhs.uk

Douglas Fleming is general practitioner in a large suburbanpractice in Birmingham. In this article he seeks to clarifyclinical issues relating to potential pandemics of influenza,including avian influenza

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

The word pandemic is used to describe a disease that is epidemicthroughout the world at more or less the same time. The othercriterion for defining a pandemic relates to the causative virus.A pandemic occurs when a completely new virus emerges—avirus that shows a more radical change (antigenic shift) thanthe change occurring continuously in influenza viruses (antigenicdrift) and which is generally associated with more severe illness.Britain is used to experiencing flu in most winters, but theseoutbreaks are not pandemics because they are not consistentlypresent in all countries at the same time and not caused bynew virus.

Transmission

Not all flu viruses have the same transmission properties. Thevirus causing avian flu in poultry spreads by faeco-oral transmission.It is widely believed that humans contracting this conditionhave acquired it as a result of contact with infected poultry,either by airborne spread from . . . [Full text of this article]

Avian flu

What should GPs be doing about the pandemic threat?

Commercial and ethical issues

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