Avian Influenza - Bird Flu

Overviews & Fact Sheets

• CDC: Avian Flu
  The Avian Indluenza section includes a "fact sheet" providing general information about bird flu and information about one type of bird flu, called avian influenza A (H5N1) that is infecting birds in Asia and has infected some humans.
• Mayo Clinic: Bird flu (avian influenza)
  This article includes an overview of the disease, its signs and symptoms, causes, risk factors, when to seek medical advice, complications, treatment, and prevention.
• Tamiflu
  Information from Roche Laboratories about its drug, Tamiflu, a neuraminidase inhibitor, that is used to treat the flu. It has a graphic representation of how Tamiflu inhibits the reproduction of the virus.
• WHO: Avian Influenza
  The World Health Organization maintains the most current information about avian influenza and cumulative case numbers. It includes a frequently asked questions page and fact sheet.
• WebMD: Cold and Flu Center
  Not specifically for Avian Flu but for the flu in general, this guide will help you decide whether you have a cold or the flu and how to treat both.

News Coverage

• BBC News: Bird Flu in Depth
  The BBC offers late breaking news about bird flu, which has now appeared in Eastern Europe, but also has a quick quide to the virus and a question and answer section for the public (can humans catch it?).
• CBC News Indepth: Avian Flu
  This website from Canada gives a background and overview of the avian flu as well as links to news stories and other websites.
• New York Times: Avian Influenza
  A free collection of articles about avian influenza published in The New York Times since 1996.
• NPR: Health Officials Keep Close Watch on Bird Flu
  A special report from National Public Radio: "An especially virulent strain of the bird flu has spread from Asia to Europe. Known as H5N1, the virus can infect humans as well as birds. World leaders and health officials are taking the threat of a pandemic seriously, and pressure is on to develop effective containment measures and treatments." You can listen to their reports online.

Issue of a Pandemic

One reason the health care community is worried about Avian Flu is the fear that it may develop into a pandemic, an epidemic of global proportions. Experts have recently reconstructed the genomic sequence of the flu virus that caused the great influenza epidemic of 1918, which killed more people in absolute numbers than any other disease outbreak in history. The genomic sequence indicates that the original virus came from birds.

• National Academies Press: The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready?
  This 2004 workshop summary from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Forum on Microbial Threats is a book that is available free online. The first chapters give an overview, background, and summary of the problem. You can also download a 75 page executive summary in .pdf format.
• Nature: WEB FOCUS: Warnings of a Flu Pandemic
  Nature, the British scientific journal, is offering free access to some of their articles about flu and our readiness to deal with a pandemic.
• PandemicFlu.gov
  The official U.S. government Web site for information on pandemic flu and avian influenza. It consists of links to US Government and World Health Organization information about the flu.
• Scientific American: Preparing for a Pandemic
  "Flu pandemics emerge unpredictably every generation or so, with the last three striking in 1918, 1957 and 1968. They get their start when one of the many influenza strains that constantly circulate in wild and domestic birds evolves into a form that infects us as well. That virus then adapts further or exchanges genes with a flu strain native to humans to produce a novel germ that is highly contagious among people." A Special Report from the November 2005 issue.

Databases

• Health and Wellness Resource Center - Galenet
  This collection offers more than 3000 articles on "avian influenza" from a broad range of media publications.
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  More than 300 citations and articles for "avian influenza" from professional health journals and magazines.

Selected Books

Addtional library resources can be found under the subject Avian Influenza and Influenza.

Davis, Mike, 1946-
The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu
"In this urgent and frightening book, Mike Davis reconstructs the scientific and political history of a viral apocalypse in the making, exposing the central roles of burgeoning slums, agribusiness, the fast-food industries, and corrupt governments in creating the ecological conditions for the emergence of this new plague." -- Book Jacket

Getz, David.
Purple Death: the mysterious flu of 1918
2000. This book, recommended for children in grades 3-6, takes its title from the skin color of the 1918 flu victims.

Greene, Jeffrey, Dr.
The Bird Flu Pandemic: Can It Happen? Will It Happen?: How to Protect Yourself and Your Family If It Does
The Chief of the Infectious Disease Section of Tisch Hospital/NYU Medical Center provides definitive answers to questions about a potential avian flu pandemic.
RA644.I6 G67 2006

Iezzoni, Lynette
Influenza 1918: The Worst Epidemic in American History
Companion book to the television documentary "Influenza 1918" aired on PBS's documentary series The American Experience" in 1999. The companion website also contains a bibliography.
RC150.4.I39 1999x

Kolata, Gina Bari, 1948-
Flu: the story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it
Gina Kolata, science reporter for The New York Times, delves into the history of the 1918 flu and current efforts to identify the virus responsible for it.
RC150.4.K64 1999

Siegel, Marc (Marc K.)
Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know about the Next Pandemic
"I do not think a massive bird flu pandemic that kills many millions of people worldwide is about to happen, for reasons that I will go into throughout this book. The major reason is that, as with mad cow disease, which has killed hundreds of thousands of cows but only a little over a hundred people, we are currently protected by a species barrier." - From the first chapter.