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Bird flu could reach Americas in 6 months

Infection Control Monitor, March 10, 2006

According to the Associated Press, the H5N1 strain of bird flu could reach the Americas in six to 12 months or even sooner as infected wild birds migrate toward the Arctic and Alaska, the U.N. bird flu chief said.

Migratory patterns will probably take birds carrying the virus from West Africa to the Arctic and Alaska this spring, David Nabarro, MD, said on Wednesday. Some infected birds will then likely move south in the fall on a migratory route to the Americas.

"Because it is moving and because we believe wild birds are implicated, predicting where it's going to flare up next is a very tricky thing to do, and being able to know the scale of the flare-up is also quite tricky," Nabarro said.

Nabarro said the United Nations was focusing on controlling the H5N1 strain in domestic poultry through slaughters and vaccinations.

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