Summary
A study reviewing 1,500 research papers found that 90% of pregnant women who contract bird flu (H5N1) die, with 87% of their unborn babies also dying.
Most surviving babies are born prematurely.
While human cases are rare and usually result from direct contact with infected birds, the findings highlight the vulnerability of pregnant women, who often face exclusion from vaccine trials and public health programs.
Experts stress the need for pandemic preparedness and ethical studies on vaccine safety in pregnant women as H5N1 continues to spread globally.
I’m a bit confused about bird flu’s spread. I keep seeing that getting sick tends to happen with exposure to infected birds, but does that mean that it can still be transmitted from human to human as easy as other flus?
No, not yet. But it’s spreading between and among more and more mammal species, which shows that the virus is changing. The next mammal species it adapts to could be humans.
Or it humans could be the third or fourth mammal down the line, which could still be very soon if it spreads to pets.