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New pandemic 'expected' as human-to-human bird flu of 'great concern' to WHO

The World Health Organisation's chief scientist Dr Jeremy Farrar has claimed a new pandemic is 'expected' after a surge in cases of deadly human-to-human bird flu

The virus has a shocking ability to pass from birds to humans, and then humans-to-humans
The virus has a shocking ability to pass from birds to humans, and then humans-to-humans(Image: Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima)

Alarm bells have been rung by World Health Organisation officials over a human-to-human strain of deadly bird flu with the potential to become a “pandemic” – claiming that it is “expected”.

The WHO's chief scientist Dr Jeremy Farrar was speaking to a UN conference this week when he claimed that the mortality rate among several hundred people thought to have been infected with it in recent months was “extremely high”.


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And, he said: “H5N1 is an influenza infection, predominantly started in poultry and ducks and has spread effectively over the course of the last one or two years to become a global zoonotic – animal – pandemic.

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A new pandemic is 'expected,' the official said
A new pandemic is 'expected,' the official said(Image: Getty Images)
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“The great concern, of course, is that in doing so and infecting ducks and chickens – but now increasingly mammals – that that virus now evolves and develops the ability to infect humans. And then critically, the ability to go from human-to-human transmission.”

He went on to explain how it's not just birds that are the issue . . . but also cows. “Do the milking structures of cows create aerosols? Is it the environment which they're living in? Is it the transport system that is spreading this around the country?," he said.


“This is a huge concern and I think we have to … make sure that if H5N1 did come across to humans with human-to-human transmission, that we were in a position to immediately respond with access equitably to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.”

The expert claimed that health officials around the world are not sufficient enough in diagnosing H5N1
The expert claimed that health officials around the world are not sufficient enough in diagnosing H5N1(Image: Getty Images)
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The expert added that a new global pandemic was “expected” and that education around airborne pathogens are being increased as the last pandemic proved that there was a “lack of commonly agreed terms” among those in the boffin community over how to explain the way in which Coronavirus was transmitted.

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And if that wasn't enough to worry about, the WHO Chief Scientist cautioned that vaccine development was not “where we need to be” – nor was it the case that public health officials worldwide would be “capable” of diagnosing H5N1.

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