(2008, July 9). Pandemic Mutations In Bird Flu Revealed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 4, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2008 / 07 / 080708200647.htm. Society for General Microbiology.

A pandemic occurs when a flu virus undergoes a dramatic genetic shift and emerges as a novel strain to which no one has immunity. The one in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people.

The H1N1 flu pandemic of 1918 killed more than 50 million people over three years, or less than 3% of those infected. By comparison, of those infected with H5N1, more than half of them died.

For several decades, scientists have rung alarms that a dangerous form of bird flu had pandemic potential. As H5N1 spreads to more species, including U.S. dairy cattle, how likely is that worst ...

What to know about bird flu amid dozens of human cases in U.S. 02:27 Health officials are alarmed by more than 50 confirmed human cases of a bird flu variant across seven states this year, with a ...

The strains causing widespread outbreak now – avian influenza A (H5N1) 2.3.4.4b viruses – first arose in 2020 and spread via migratory birds to Africa, Asia and Europe, according to the World ...

The U.K. government didn’t say the next pandemic may already be here in the form of the avian flu. A bird flu outbreak began spreading globally in 2020, affecting wild birds, commercial and ...

Current strains of bird flu are “poorly suited for pandemic potential,” said Dr. Shira Doron, a Tufts Medicine infectious disease expert.

As bird flu, also known as H5N1, spreads across the country, experts are concerned about the potential for undetected transfer and mutations.

Will bird flu be the next COVID-19? Spottiswoode: Bird flu is fairly unlikely to be the next pandemic. To become a pandemic, a virus has to be able to pass from person to person effectively — as COVID ...

Federal officials also are exploring mRNA bird flu vaccines, which could be made very quickly, as the Covid pandemic illustrated, to protect both cows and people. Dr. Hensley’s team is testing ...