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Health Report

Bird flu has reached Australia. Now what?

6/22/202619 min

The first cases of H5N1 bird flu have been confirmed following the discovery and rescue of a sick bird on a remote beach in Western Australia.

Since then more sick birds have been reported, with authorities stressing the safest approach is to take a photo and notify them.

While the risk of bird to human transmission is low, there have been almost one thousand cases of H5N1 bird flu in humans since 2003.

So what happens now?

Further information:

Clips

CDC Cuts Hamper Surveillance
First Human Case 1997
Milk-Borne Cow Outbreak
Vaccines Without Eggs
Red Eyes Warning Sign

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Priya Alexander· Host0:00

    [gentle music] We're doing a bonus episode of The Health Report this week because you've likely seen in your news feed bird flu or avian influenza. So at the time of recording, and this is a rapidly evolving story with changing numbers, but right now as we record, there are two confirmed cases of H5N1 in birds in Western Australia, and these are of course the first cases of this particular virus strain on the mainland. And breaking news at the time of recording is that Ingham's Chicken, which is one of the nation's biggest poultry producers, has just announced that it's going to lock down its Western Australian operations in response to the potential threat of bird flu. So to be very clear, there are no confirmed cases of H5N1 in poultry. This is just managing the hypothetical risk. So I'm joined by Belinda Smith, who is the co-host of The Health Report because Norman is gallivanting. Thank you.

  2. Belinda Smith· Host1:01

    He is gallivanting. [laughs] Like a migratory bird.

  3. Priya Alexander· Host1:04

    Yes, correct. [laughs] So thank you for joining me.

  4. Belinda Smith· Host1:06

    Oh, thanks for having me.

  5. Priya Alexander· Host1:07

    I think we need to start very clearly with what we are talking about here.

  6. Belinda Smith· Host1:11

    Yes.

  7. Priya Alexander· Host1:12

    We are talking about... Everyone's familiar, particularly at the moment with influenza.

  8. Belinda Smith· Host1:17

    Absolutely.

  9. Priya Alexander· Host1:17

    We're talking about a strain of influenza- Mm-hmm ... specifically H5N1.

  10. Belinda Smith· Host1:23

    Mm-hmm.

  11. Priya Alexander· Host1:24

    2.3.4.4b lineage.

  12. Belinda Smith· Host1:27

    It's a really catchy name, isn't it?

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