Title:Understanding of and Possible Strategies to Avian Influenza Outbreak
Volume: 14
Issue: 8
Author(s): Junkang Shen, Andy Zhang, Huifen Xu, Pierre Sirois, Jia Zhang, Kai Li and Li Xiao
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Avian flu, Viral virulence, Gene knockout, Sia, 3 receptors and Sia, 6 receptors.
Abstract: Swine flu and avian flu outbreaks have occurred in recent years in addition to seasonal flu. As mortality rate records
are not available at the early stage of an outbreak, two parameters may be useful to assess the viral virulence : 1.
the time required for the first domestic case in a newly involved region, and 2. the doubling time of new infected cases.
Viral virulence is one of the most important factors in guiding short term and immediate responses. Although routine surveillance
and repeated vaccination are useful efforts, some novel strategies that may be relevant to prevent and control the
spread of influenza among human beings and domestic animals are discussed.