Rome, 27 April 2024 – FromCould bird flu be the next pandemic? “Today we cannot say for sure. But what this H5N1 virus drilled an important series of other animals to even get to farmed mammals, brings a problem to the attention of the scientific and political world.”
So he thinks Matteo Bassettidirector of the infectious diseases department at San Martino in Genoa, on the phone with Qn.net from Barcelona, where he starts today the Escmid Global Congressthe most important world meeting of infectious disease specialists.
Avian flu: from chickens to dairy cows (in the USA): what should we expect
The professor observes: “In America in raw milk there could be traces of a virus that came from chickens. No one can know if it is viable and capable of transmitting infections. But this seems like a fact to me. The appeal from WHO and FAO to raise the control threshold confirms that we are faced with something different, compared to the cases of 25 years ago, documented in birds”.
After the spread of theavian flu among dairy cows in the USA and investigations into the possible role in transmission, WHO and FAO have “strongly recommended consuming pasteurized and not raw milk”.
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The Barcelona congress – “the most important in the world in this sector”, underlines Bassetti – has put some global problems under the spotlight. “An appeal has been launched to the UN and governments – recalls the professor – for the antibiotic-resistant bacteria That they kill 5 million people worldwide And at least 30-40 thousand in Italy”.
Bassetti will also intervene on fungal infections, among all Candida auris. The infectious disease specialist observes: “Today 20 thousand people are gathered here, I’m talking about professionals. The topic of infectious diseases has once again become central as a global health problem, especially after the pandemic. Before, no one smoked these conferences.”
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