Bird Flu Introduction

• What is Bird Flu?
• How do humans get infected?
• What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?
• Is there any way to treat bird flu?
• Does flu vaccination help to prevent bird flu?

What is Bird Flu?
Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a disease that mainly affects poultry such as chickens, turkeys, quails, ducks and geese as well as a variety of other birds. However, it can also spread to humans on close contact. Recent outbreaks of bird flu among poultry have occurred in China, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and US. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put out a global alert on the disease.
While bird flu has not spread to Singapore, our Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) and Ministry of Health (MOH) are closely monitoring the situation and taking various precautionary measures.

How do humans get infected?
It is rare for bird flu to infect humans. In the few cases where humans are infected, the virus is transmitted through close contact with infected chickens. You can only catch the bird flu virus if an infected chicken coughs or sneezes directly into your face, or if you breathe in particles from its droppings.

To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?
The reported symptoms of bird flu in humans have ranged from typical flu-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches) to eye infections, pneumonia and other complications.

Is there any way to treat bird flu?
Anti-viral drugs (e.g., Tamiflu) appear to be effective in treating bird flu. Further testing is being done to confirm this. If you think you might have been exposed to bird flu, consult your doctor for advice.

Does flu vaccination help to prevent bird flu?
The flu vaccine currently in use worldwide protects against different strains of the human flu virus, but offers little protection from bird flu. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that people exposed to infected chickens or farms under suspicion should be vaccinated with the current WHO recommended human flu vaccine. This is to avoid situations where people may be infected by the prevailing variety of human flu and bird flu at the same time, thus enabling the bird flu virus to mutate and trigger a flu pandemic (i.e., when the disease spreads to the whole of a country or over the whole world).