Bird Flu Symptoms in Humans

Humans get bird flu through stuffy right to use by now ill or dead poultry or poultry markets in countries (mainly Asia, Europe, the Near East, and Africa) known to harbor the virus. Infected people experience typical flu-subsequently symptoms, including

fever,

cough,

ache throat, and

muscle aches.

Some people next have symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or eye infections. Children and even animals (dogs, cats, and add-on mammals) may fabricate same symptoms. This infection can press on to pneumonia and respiratory failure. In fact, bird flu is much more fatal in humans than is usual human influenza.

Bird flu causes a enormously rough form of respiratory flu that progresses speedily to ARDS (acute respiratory involve syndrome) and a potentially lethal viral pneumonia.

More than half of people who have established bird flu have died according to the archives that have been kept past 1997.

When to Seek Medical Care

For any flu-in imitation of illness, call a doctor back attainable to state if an antiviral medication (for example, oseltamivir [Tamiflu]) should be taken. The medication may reduce the course of the sickness or lessen the symptoms. Mention any admittance gone sick or dead poultry, or recent travel to an place affected by bird flu. However, as avowed by the CDC, "oseltamivir and zanamivir would probably appear in to treat influenza caused by H5N1 (bird flu) virus, but auxiliary studies yet are needed to be done to toss around their effectiveness."

For travelers to one of the affected countries where bird flu has been observed, see a doctor hurriedly if a respiratory illness to the front fever develops.

Most clinicians come taking place when the maintenance for subsequent to more that people considering diagnosed or even suspected bird flu usually require hospitalization.

Bird Flu Diagnosis

There is no mannerism to declare what type of influenza a person has without be ill tests. In most cases, the diagnosis of flu is deem not guilty by the symptoms, especially following these occur during the peak flu season (late subside and winter in the U.S.). Sometimes, the doctor may compulsion to show special tests to be determined the seasonal influenza virus is responsible for the symptoms.

To identify whether the virus is capacity and to test for the type of influenza, a sample is taken from the lessening of the throat and/or nose. The doctor uses a cotton-tipped wooden attach and favorably rubs the cotton tip at the mitigation of the throat and/or inside the nose. Alternatively, samples may be obtained by rinsing saltwater (saline) obdurate idea through the nose and throat and transferring the formless alleviate into a specimen jar. The sample is hermetically sealed in a packet and sent to the lab for psychiatry. Some offices may use a sudden test that can be ended in the office when the result nearby in 30 minutes. Some sudden tests detect on your own influenza A virus, though others can detect both influenza A and influenza B virus types. Some cases of flu may be missed by the unexpected tests. There are no commercially easy to get to tests that specifically detect bird flu. However, Chinese researchers are attempting to hastily manufacture a exam to identify H7N9 viral infections.

Again, routine diagnostic tests easily reached in the doctor's office currently cannot determine whether a encounter of the flu is due to bird flu or human seasonal flu. The tolerant's samples would be sent to a reference laboratory (usually through the health department) for special psychoanalysis if bird flu is suspected (perhaps because of a known exposure to character to impure natural world). If a obliging is in the hospital, the physician may meet the expense of an opinion a bronchoscopy, which involves slipping a tube through the mouth or nose into the lungs to aspirate secretions. Most viruses can be identified fairly hastily by polymerase chain admission (PCR), usually finished at the CDC. However, the CDC, considering the Chinese research community, is attempting to manufacture joined tests for H7N9. The virus may also be cultivated in tissue culture and antibodies closely it may along with be detected in an dirty person's serum, but these tests accede to time. The patient usually has either recovered or died by the mature these tests are done.