Bird flu – why bother?

This issue of MEHD contains two new articles on bird flu and, in the last 2 years, we have had others on the same topic. Our readers may ask why the editor of an ecological journal is so concerned. I will comment upon two of the many good reasons for this decision: (i) bird flu represents an ecological threat for wild birds and mammals, and (ii) many governments and health authorities all around the world seem to be rather reluctant to consider the threat for man.

As outlined in the article by Wallensten [1], influenza A virus is a master of metamorphosis and wild birds and wild mammals are all possible targets, and then it is an ecological concern. It is a sad fact that little can be done to prevent death among wild birds and animals, but we have to be prepared to handle the situation when it is there.

In most countries, health authorities base their policy upon a ‘worst case’ assumption that a new pandemic will be a repetition of what happened in 1918 [2]. It goes without saying that there is no biological, scientific basis for this assumption. In fact, the World Health Organization no longer considers death figures from the Spanish flu pandemic to represent a realistic worst case scenario [3]. In 2006, the average fatality among human H5N1 cases all over the world was 69% and this is obviously far worse than the mortality that was observed in any country during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Therefore, this journal will continue to publish articles such as the one in this issue [4].