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The Curious Bag
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The avian flu, also known as bird flu, is a virus that affects birds. Humans have no immunity to this strain of flu. While the bird flu has been prevalent in the news in recent years, the virus actually has been around for a long time.
History
According to the Bird Flu Center, the first accounts of an avian flu came in 1878 when a disease in Italy killed large numbers of chickens.
Significance
The bird flu virus came from a mutation of a type A influenza virus. Later research found that no other type of influenza strain can affect animals.
Spanish Flu
The flu that killed between 50 to 100 million in 1918 and 1919, known as the Spanish flu, jumped from birds to humans after a slight genetic alteration.
Scotland
The next outbreak of bird flu came in Scotland in 1959. However, this strain turned out to be fairly mild killing only 1 million people around the world.
Hong Kong Flu
In 1968, a variation of the bird flu called the Hong Kong flu struck the United States and killed 34,000 people. However, a vaccine appeared a month before the virus peaked, cutting down deaths.
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