Scientists have issued a warning after an outbreak of bird flu in cows that has now spread from animals to humans. Earlier this year, the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed they had discovered the first case of someone catching bird flu from a cow.
The incident, which was recorded in April and involved strain H5N1, came just two months before a 59-year-old man in Mexico died from a strain of bird flu never before seen in humans until this year.
The strain in that case, known as H5N2, has triggered warnings from scientists about the possibility of another pandemic sweeping around the world.
While health officials in the US have not found evidence to suggest the two outbreaks in the USA and Mexico are connected, there is nevertheless great concern about the rise in bird flu cases.
Speaking to NewsNation about the possibility of another pandemic caused by bird flu, former director of the CDC Robert Redfield said it was a question of if rather than when.
Mr Redfield said: “I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic.”
Mr Redfield’s warning comes months after global health experts warned that the next pandemic could be up to 20 times deadlier than Covid-19 and kill up to 50m people.
Speaking about the potential devastation that could be caused by a virus known as ‘Disease X’, the leader of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce in 2020 Kate Bingham warned: “Let me put it this way: the 1918/19 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide, twice as many as were killed in World War 1.
“Today, we could expect a similar death toll from one of the many viruses that already exist. Today, there are more viruses busily replicating and mutating than all the other life forms on our planet combined. Not all of them pose a threat to humans, of course – but plenty do.
“In a sense, we got lucky with Covid-19, despite the fact that it caused 20 million or more deaths across the world. The point is that the vast majority of people infected with the virus managed to recover.
“Imagine Disease X is as infectious as measles with the fatality rate of Ebola [67%]. Somewhere in the world, it’s replicating, and sooner or later, somebody will start feeling sick.”