Bird flu peak season

If people accidentally contract avian influenza, it is actually quite serious. This is mainly a disease caused by viral infection. Therefore, when it occurs, isolation and treatment must be taken as soon as possible. Otherwise, it is likely to cause the patient to spread the disease, or even infect other people. Therefore, only isolation can prevent the disease from worsening again.

What month is the peak season for bird flu?

Human infection with avian influenza is a human disease caused by the avian influenza virus. Avian influenza virus belongs to type A influenza virus. According to the different pathogenicity of avian influenza virus to chickens and turkeys, it is divided into three levels: high, medium, and low/non-pathogenic.

Due to the characteristics of the hemagglutinin structure of the avian influenza virus, it generally infects poultry. When the virus undergoes genetic recombination during the replication process, causing the structure to change and gaining the ability to infect humans, it may cause human infection with avian influenza. So far, the avian influenza virus subtypes that can directly infect humans are: H5N1, H7N1, H7N2, H7N3, H7N7, H9N2 and H7N9.

The white blood cell levels of most patients infected with avian influenza are lower than normal, among which the lymphocyte levels are not high or even decreased. If the platelet level is low, it is necessary to consider whether disseminated intravascular coagulation is caused by severe infection, and a comprehensive identification should be made based on the results of coagulation analysis, fibrinogen level, etc. Blood biochemical examination often shows elevated creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, elevated C-reactive protein, and myoglobin.

Imaging examinations revealed flake-like shadows in the lungs of patients with pneumonia. The lesions in critically ill patients progress rapidly, showing multiple ground-glass shadows and pulmonary consolidation images in both lungs, which may be accompanied by a small amount of pleural effusion. When ARDS occurs, the lesions are widespread.

The most reliable method is still pathogen detection. Before antiviral treatment, medical institutions with the necessary conditions should collect respiratory specimens (such as nasopharyngeal secretions, oral rinses, tracheal aspirates, or respiratory epithelial cells) for viral nucleic acid testing (real-time fluorescence PCR testing) and virus isolation.

In addition to avian influenza virus infection, human patients infected with avian influenza often have concurrent or secondary bacterial infections in the early stages. After using antibiotics for a long time or in large doses and inappropriate use of glucocorticoids, they may also have concurrent fungal infections. Therefore, sputum culture and respiratory aspirate culture should be performed multiple times clinically to check the type of bacteria and/or fungi, and their sensitivity or resistance type, so as to rationally select antibiotics and guide clinical treatment.