Un third man contaminated by the H5N1 influenza virus, the threshold of one hundred dairy cow farms affected… In recent weeks, worrying signs have been accumulating in the United States on the capacity of the avian influenza virus to gain ever more ground among cattle but also in humans. In response, the EU Health Emergency Preparedness Authority (Hera) – born in response to the Covid-19 pandemic – entered into a contract to acquire 665,000 doses of the pre-pandemic avian flu vaccine from the British company Seqirus, on behalf of fifteen Member States, including France.
People who work in contact with at-risk livestock will be the first to be affected by these vaccinations. But an option of 40 million additional doses was also negotiated to expand the vaccination campaign if necessary. Five questions to understand the increased pandemic risk in Europe.
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Why is the profile of this avian virus worrying?
“The threat of bird flu is old. The H5N1 virus was first spotted in 1997, during an epidemic in Hong Kong, causing the death of six people. It reappeared at the end of 2003, first causing epizootics – diseases affecting only animal species – in poultry in several Asian countries, followed by the first human cases,” recalls Daniel Floret, former vice […] Read more
