Influenza is a threat every year, but this flu season has the World Health Organization on “High Alert”
Alanna Shaikh - January 25, 2017 The flu strikes every winter. But this influenza season is particularly dangerous. Outbreaks of “avian influenza” or “bird flu” have been reported in 40 countries since November. This sharply increases the likelihood that deadly bird flu stains may begin infecting humans in larger and larger number. Now, the World Health Organization is on “high alert.” And for good reason. Influenza is a threat every year, but this flu season is different. 40 countries is an unusually large number of outbreaks, in a wide geographical range of locations. The number of cases has increased steeply since December. Some of these outbreaks result from a new strain of influenza; Asia is facing severe outbreaks of the H5N6 influenza virus in animals, which was actually created by four existing viruses swapping genes. Even more ominously, there are signs that this outbreak could be the beginning of the worst possible scenario for pandemic flu: human-to-human