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A comment on First human case of avian flu in Texas. Parent comment

Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by huytersd on Monday April 01, 2024 @02:39PM (#39897552)
You won’t want to live your life normally if there is a 60% mortality rate airborne virus around.
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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by foobarian on Monday April 01, 2024 @03:10PM (#39897909)
A virus with that kind of mortality rate would have no chance to spread very far anyway, so all good!
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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by SAI_Peregrinus on Monday April 01, 2024 @03:15PM (#39897972)
That depends on the time difference between when it becomes transmissible and when it causes death. If it's short, it won't spread much. If it's long, it'll spread all over the place.
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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by outworlder on Monday April 01, 2024 @03:29PM (#39898122)
> A virus with that kind of mortality rate would have no chance to spread very far anyway, so all good!

Give it a two week incubation time (not that far-fetched) and it will spread far and wide.

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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by SketchySeaBeast on Monday April 01, 2024 @02:50PM (#39897677)
Sure, if that proves to be the case I would happily lock myself up. I can quarantine with the best of them. But the fact of the matter is that we don't know a lot about H5N1 infections in people due to the extremely low number of known infections. The individual in question here appears to be having more mild symptoms.
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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by huytersd on Monday April 01, 2024 @02:55PM (#39897722)
The number of infections is low in the US but we have a lot of data from China and south east Asia where it’s more prevalent. 800 people have been infected in total so far with about a 50% mortality rate since the late 90s.
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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by SketchySeaBeast on Monday April 01, 2024 @02:58PM (#39897757)
Do we know the rate they tested at? Do we think it's possible they caught everyone infected?

To be clear in this, I took COVID very seriously, I still carry a mask in my pocket and use it when I travel, but I'm trying to be realistic about the situation.

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Re:First human case of avian flu in Texas by throwup238 on Monday April 01, 2024 @03:07PM (#39897868)
> Do we think it's possible they caught everyone infected?

It's not. The CDC only caught this case because they are proactively testing workers at farms that have confirmed animal outbreaks.

> "The patient reported eye redness (consistent with conjunctivitis), as their only symptom, and is recovering." [1]

Diseases like ebola or hendra virus that actually have 50%+ mortality rates don't have mild forms like this.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0401-avian-flu.html

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