Early Diagnosis of Avian Influenza

摘要

The current wave of pandemic avian influenza looks likely to spread via migrating ducks into North America by early fall of this year. Although this form of influenza A virus primarily targets wild birds and poultry, it can infect some mammals. In the few human cases that have been reported (usually only after intimate contact with domestic birds), the infection followed an unusually aggressive course and more than half of the victims have died (on 24 March 2006, the World Health Organization reported 186 human cases and 105 fatalities). The danger is that if the virus adapts sufficiently to allow serial human-to-human transmission, a global human pandemic may rapidly develop.