The Innsbruck infectious disease specialist and director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine, Günter Weiss, expects a global epidemic in the medium term, caused by a “human flu virus” in combination with an avian flu virus. “This could result in a new, serious epidemic or a new virus with pandemic potential,” Weiss said.
However, this does not necessarily have the same consequences as those with Corona. After all, the swine flu pandemic was “relatively mild,” the renowned expert explained, emphasizing that he “did not want to create panic” or be alarmist in any way. Weiss recalled that he had not done this during the corona pandemic: “But you have to know what could happen to us so that you can be prepared for the eventuality.”
Expert: “The virus is constantly changing”
The influenza virus is “capable of affecting different species – birds, pigs, humans,” the top doctor specified. “The virus is constantly changing. It may be that a new virus emerges that contains components of different flu viruses from different animal species, is contagious to humans and is not recognized by the immune system. “That could cause a new serious epidemic or a new virus with pandemic potential,” Weiss said.
“I assume that something like this will happen in the foreseeable future,” said the infectious disease specialist. In recent years and months, there have been increased viral interactions and “spread of the virus” between humans and animals.
Bird flu: 50 percent of infections are fatal
Regarding bird flu, a “type of flu,” Weiss spoke of a “silent pandemic” circulating specifically in Europe and “mainly affecting birds.” Millions of birds are affected and many will die. ‘Isolated’ or ‘a few hundred cases’ also occurred in people who had ‘close contact’ with the animals. About 50 percent of them ended fatally. Direct transmission from person to person has not yet taken place.
However, Weiss referred to four cases of farmers in the US who were not seriously ill, but were affected. The starting point was that the bird flu virus was transmitted to cows and that the infections were transmitted through direct contact, but also through milk. “This shows that the virus can change,” the doctor returned to the premise of his assumption or prediction.
Expert calls for ‘fact-based discussion’
Such an epidemic should in no way be accompanied by consequences for society as a whole, such as with the coronavirus. And that’s when you don’t put your rational mind aside. Instead of closing schools, there should be a “factual, evidence-based discussion” and “not always looking for someone to blame,” as in this country.
In any case, one thing can be said in general: Europe and therefore also Austria are increasingly becoming a “playground” for a wide variety of infectious diseases that previously did not exist in this form. Due to globalization, global mobility, travel to the most remote areas, restrictions on animal habitats in rainforests and tropical areas, the associated increased interaction, and global warming and climate, new pathogens and modes of transmission, Weiss pointed out. .
There are also more infectious diseases in the summer
“There are more clinical images. More infections. The spectrum is broader,” emphasizes the infectious disease specialist. In the summer you see more infectious diseases, ticks and mosquitoes will advance further north due to higher temperatures and can transmit a wide variety of old and new pathogens over a longer period of time.
Source: Krone
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