We told you earlier today, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed its concern about the increasing spread of the H5N1 strain of avian flu to humans. Yves Van Laethem, infectious disease specialist at Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels, was our guest on Bel RTL Soir to discuss this virus.
This worry brings back bad memories, those of the coronavirus. How should this signal from the WHO be interpreted?
I think the World Health Organization knows that it must not give the signal too late. She learned it with Covid and other things, so she prefers to take the lead. I think she is absolutely right to say that we have to be careful because we have a respiratory virus here. Since Covid, we have known a lot about what that means.
We know that it causes extremely significant damage which has nothing to do with that of Covid. And we now know that he is getting closer to us. It is not yet in human-to-human transmission, but it is getting closer to us since it can infect many mammals and at least one case of passage from a mammal to humans has been demonstrated.
What does that mean for us? What should we pay attention to?
So for us, it’s not going to change anything for the general population. That is extremely clear. I think that at the government level, there are several things to do: check that everything we were promised that would be in place for a future crisis is in place. Two, monitor what is happening from a veterinary health point of view. That’s the job of big agencies like Sciensano, for example. Three is to remind, if necessary, pharmaceutical companies that it may not be pointless to already look into a potential vaccine.
To be ready more quickly than we could be for Covid.
Exactly. In this case, we must no longer look for masks. In this case, the industry must be ready even more quickly. It was still very fast, but even more quickly ready with a potential vaccine. We need to be able to decide what we do if the virus really has human-to-human transmission. Should we relaunch these major measures, perhaps, of total blackout in which we close everything?
We are talking about avian flu, does that mean that those who touch or handle birds are more at risk? Is there anything to watch out for?
If these people must be tested for cases of influenza-like illness, it is those who are closer to animals in their function who could be the first to manifest new cases of transmission between an animal and a human.
We know that in the United States, it is from a cow, indeed, to a man. But we know that a wide variety of mammal-type animals, from seals to polar bears, jackals and coyotes, have already been found positive.
So, clearly, the virus has adapted to the mammal. It has not yet adapted to us, but it is the last phase before the possible propagation which could very well not take place.
You might as well be ready. You have to be attentive and not tell yourself that you won’t be afraid of getting the flu.
No worries, but a lot of attention and a lot of preparation. If you have any doubts, of course, you can contact your doctor.
Quite. And we must emphasize the fact that transmissions from animals to humans have not taken place in our country, neither from birds nor from mammals to humans. No cases in our regions. It remains a situation which, for the moment, must evoke the awakening of public health structures which must precisely prevent the situation from turning bad if it were to evolve.
yves van laethem Avian flu
