June 30 (Bloomberg) — Bird Flu tends to kill younger people, mirroring the pattern of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and the risk of the virus causing a worldwide outbreak in humans remains high, a World Health Organization study said.
A severe pandemic such as the one that killed 50 million people in 1918 may take 70 million lives and cause global economic losses of as much as $2 trillion, a World Bank official said yesterday.
Half of the cases occurred among people younger than 20 and 90 percent occurred among those aged less than 40 years, it said.
“The increased number of cases among females aged 10-29 years could indicate higher risk-exposure patterns, for example, by taking part in culling, defeathering or food preparation practices that are often carried out by specific population groups, such as young females,” the study said.
It found that while cases have occurred all year round, the epidemiological curve of H5N1 cases peaked during the cooler periods in the Northern Hemisphere.
“If this pattern continues, an upsurge in cases could be anticipated starting in late 2006 or early 2007,” it said, adding that further studies are needed to assess the relationship between climatic conditions, poultry outbreaks and associated human cases.
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Originally posted 2006-07-01 03:53:03.
