Recently, there have been signs indicating that the H5N1 virus has infected household pets such as cats and pigs. This phenomenon has prompted scientists to issue warnings that the H5N1 virus is evolving, and the potential for transmission “needs to be carefully considered.”
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Cats – the closest pets in the household are at risk of becoming a transmission bridge for the H5N1 virus. |
Currently, avian influenza – the H5N1 virus strain has erupted in most places around the world. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), over 100 people have died from this virus.
Scientists are making every effort to monitor each step and find ways to prevent the development of this virus strain.
The Evolution of the H5N1 Virus
For the first time, since the emergence of the H5N1 strain that infected cats, it occurred in Thailand in 2004, where 14 out of 15 cats died from the H5N1 virus in a household near the capital, Bangkok.
The cause of this infection was due to a cat eating the carcass of a chicken in a farm experiencing an outbreak of the H5N1 virus.
Subsequently, cats in Indonesia, Thailand, and Iraq also died from H5N1 virus infection. Notably, this infection has become common among cats in Indonesia.
In March 2006, a cat died in Germany after being found infected with the H5N1 virus originating from wild birds.
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Research on the H5N1 virus in the laboratory (Photo: Vrtnieuws) |
Following this, pigs on two farms in Banten province, near Jakarta, Indonesia, also died from H5N1 virus infection in November 2005, where previously three people had died from this virus.
Most recently, the first avian influenza case appeared in wildlife when a German health expert discovered a marten infected with the live H5N1 virus on Ruegen Island in the Baltic Sea, near where three pet cats were infected with this virus strain.
In Scotland, a swan died from H5N1 virus infection. Scientists confirmed this as a variant of avian influenza.
Additionally, there are reports of “big cats” (tigers) also dying from H5N1 virus infection – with 147 tigers dying in a zoo in Thailand after eating infected chickens.
H5N1 Evolution: The Risk of H5N1 Transmission from Animals to Humans
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H5N1 is still lurking to attack humans. (Photo: Press) |
Scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, state that they do not yet have enough data and evidence to determine whether this virus strain continues to infect other mammals or evolves into a new strain capable of infecting humans.
Scientists warn that wherever the H5N1 virus appears, if animals consume infected poultry, it will eventually lead to the risk of transmission to humans.
They do not want to exaggerate the risk of transmission, but if it happens, health officials “need to carefully consider” each evolutionary step of this virus strain.
The Asian Development Bank has decided to provide a grant of $15 million to the Government of Vietnam to support infectious disease prevention efforts. This grant is part of the “Regional Infectious Disease Control Project” for three countries in the region, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, totaling nearly $39 million. Additionally, Vietnam has received funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) amounting to $450,000 and a counterpart fund from the Government of $4.55 million for this project. (Source: TTXVN) |
According to Professor Peter Openshaw, Head of the Respiratory Infection Department at St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London, England, currently, animal species are almost at an evolutionary dead end.
The transmission of this virus strain primarily occurs through the intestines and lungs of animals, with no signs of self-excretion of the virus that can infect humans.
However, household pets, especially close animals such as cats and rare birds, are indeed the transmission bridge to humans.
Therefore, the best preventive measure to avoid transmission to humans is to isolate these pets.
According to the latest report, the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health have chosen cats as part of a research plan to observe the role and transmission of the H5N1 virus strain.
Ngoc Huyen
