Urgent warning to pet owners amid deadly outbreak - symptoms you need to know
An urgent warning has been issued to pet owners after more than two dozen cats fell ill with bird flu across Poland.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said cat and dog owners should be alert after 45 felines dropped dead in 13 regions in the country late last month.
The health agency said it was the first time that so many cats had been recorded with the deadly disease. It comes after an unprecedented global outbreak of the latest version of the H5N1 strain.
Last week, it was found that 29 cats had tested positive with H5N1.
Despite the huge amount of cats reported to have fallen ill, no people appear to have been infected in the recent cases.
Furious chimp launches bottle at girl filming him leaving her bleeding at zoo
The World Health Organisation said the amount of cases to be reported is unusual (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Both WHO and partner agencies stressed that the amount of cases is unusual and said they fear it could eventually trigger another pandemic if a mutation occurs, that could spread more easily between people to people.
As of June, the most recent variant of H5N1 has been found in birds and other animal species in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Since 2020, WHO said a dozen human cases have been reported.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many experts had suspected that the next global outbreak would be sparked by H5N1.
But while bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of birds globally, it has sickened fewer than 900 people since 2003 and has not been able to spread easily among humans.
The WHO said it is unclear how the domestic cats in Poland became infected with bird flu and said officials are still investigating possible sources of exposure, including contact with wild birds that are known to carry H5N1.
The agency said the risk of people in Poland being infected with bird flu was "low" and "low to moderate" for people exposed to cats, including cat owners and veterinarians.
Experts have previously cautioned that pigs, which are susceptible to flu viruses from both humans and birds, might act as a "mixing vessel", leading to the emergence of mutated viruses that could be lethal to people.
Since last year, authorities in 10 countries have reported bird flu outbreaks in mammals, including farmed mink in Spain, seals in the US, and sea lions in Peru and Chile.
According to WHO, symptoms can range from a high temperature to shortness of breath.
A description on its website reads: "Avian, swine and other zoonotic influenza infections in humans may cause disease ranging from mild upper respiratory infection (fever and cough) to rapid progression to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, shock and even death.
Scientists plan to ‘de-extinct’ the Dodo and release it back into the wild
"Gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea has been reported more frequently in A(H5N1) infection. Conjunctivitis has also been reported in influenza A(H7).
"Disease features such as the incubation period, severity of symptoms and clinical outcome varies by the virus causing infection but mainly manifests with respiratory symptoms."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
