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Humans lack antibodies to this type of virus, which makes it potentially deadly for absolutely everyone.
Imagine a virus that, spreading from person to person, infects millions and kills strong and generally healthy individuals who simply should not — and do not — have antibodies against the disease. This is not a Hollywood thriller scenario, but a real threat, warn French experts from the Pasteur Institute — the same institute that was among the first to develop a COVID-19 test. The death of a farmer from the H5N5 avian flu in the United States — the first such case in history — has prompted scientists to sound the alarm: mutation of the virus could trigger a pandemic even worse than the one we have lived through, writes Der Spiegel.
Since 2022, the world has been experiencing the largest avian flu wave in history. The H5N1 virus (and its subtype H5N5) has killed hundreds of millions of birds — in Europe, including Germany, 1.5 million chickens had to be culled. And now it officially poses a threat to humans. A farmer in the United States who was feeding poultry has died — the first confirmed fatal case of H5N5 in a human. Yes, the man had underlying conditions, but the key point is that the virus “jumped” to him.
Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, head of the Center for Respiratory Infections at the Pasteur Institute, is not trying to calm the public:
“A pandemic of avian flu will likely be very serious — possibly even worse than the one we just experienced.”
Scientists fear the virus may mutate — first fully adapting to mammals and then becoming transmissible from human to human.
H5 viruses have already been infecting mammals (from cats to otters). If mutations continue in this direction, a “spillover” to humans becomes entirely possible. And the biggest problem for humanity is that we have no antibodies against this virus subtype. This makes it deadly even for the young and healthy. Consequently, mortality in such a pandemic would be extremely high.
However, the researchers’ warning is not a declaration of the end of the world. The world has been well “trained” by the COVID-19 pandemic and already knows how to act if a dangerous virus mutation emerges. Moreover, potential vaccines against H5 already physically exist.
