skip to the content
Avian Influenza

Surveillance of avian influenza

A primary goal of monitoring for avian influenza is to identify any cases of human-to-human transmission quickly, so that health officials can attempt to contain and control the situation.

The WHO is in close collaboration with national Ministries of Health and public health organisations worldwide to support national surveillance of circulating influenza strains. A sensitive surveillance system that can detect emerging influenza strains is essential for the rapid detection of a new pandemic virus. [1]

Worldwide monitoring of H5N1

Health experts have been monitoring the worldwide incidence of the H5N1 strain for almost 10 years. [1] This virus strain was first identified in humans in Hong Kong in 1997, where it caused 18 cases of influenza, including six deaths. Since mid-2003, this virus has led to the death or destruction of tens of millions of birds, and in December 2003, infections were identified in humans exposed to sick birds. Since then, H5N1 has caused 291 cases of bird-to-human transmission and 172 deaths (data correct as of 11 April 2007). [2] This equates to a mortality rate of 59% – just one of the reasons why experts and public health authorities are so concerned. If H5N1 virus were to gain the capacity to be easily transmissible between humans, an influenza pandemic could begin.

Avian influenza disease maps

The WHO website shows worldwide disease maps that track the incidence of H5N1 avian influenza and indicate which countries have been affected.

  1. World Health Organization. Ten things you need to know about pandemic influenza. Available here. 
  2. World Health Organization. Cumulative number of confirmed human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) reported to WHO. Available here.  
  • "I would describe flu as something that makes you feel very, very ill. You get a headache, aching bones, and are generally fed up"
  • "When I get flu symptoms I feel like a train has run over me"
  • "I felt very sick and, during the first week, I had high temperature. Flu was very different to a cold. I went back to work after two and a half weeks. Then I suffered a setback for another week"
  • "I run a guesthouse; flu would be a real pest for me. I couldn’t cook, I shouldn’t cook, and I wouldn’t cook, so I would need to get a lot of extra help in. It would cost me a lot more money. So flu’s a real problem, a right downturn"
  • "I work on my own and when I can’t work, I have to try not to infect my little children, so they avoid getting the flu as well"
  • "I feel a little numb, like I’m in another dimension. Because in general I have sore throat, headache, I feel all clogged-up. Usually a sensation like I’m floating in the air"
  • "Shivers, sweats, makes you ache. Last time I had flu I was off for two weeks"
  • "I think that I would probably be concerned that I would pass flu onto my children, who might not be able to deal with it as well as I would"
  • "Flu makes you feel like you’ve been hit over the head with a baseball bat. You don’t feel like you can get yourself out of bed as all your energy is drawn from you"
  • "I was incapable of working. It just wasn’t possible at all… and my flu dragged on for more than a week"
  • "I have no strength. It annoys me because I can do nothing, it seems like I’m wasting my time"
  • "Flu’s like being hit by a truck because you feel completely gone. There is no energy left in your body. You are suffering from high temperature. You’re sweating a lot and you feel really unwell"
  • "First of all infinite tiredness, then I feel like sleeping and don’t want to eat"
  • "I felt really miserable because my muscles and my bones were aching. Well, I can hardly describe it, I just felt really awful, absolutely miserable"
  • "It’s like there’s something huge treading on your head, like a deafening noise that destroys the eardrums"
  • "The fever was constantly rising – I immediately measured my temperature as soon as I got home. It was 41°C and it kept rising and I was wondering what’s going on. I was really scared! Everything was hurting and it all happened so fast. Flu came out of the blue"
  • "I always feel like my limbs have iron weights tied to them and I’m going to fall over any minute, a really stuffy runny nose and feel antisocial"
  • "I was totally dependent on others! I was incapable of doing anything at all"
  • "The real flu knocks you for six – you just don’t want to move or do anything. It’s not very nice"
  • "Not being able to go to work. Not being able to do the things I have to do at home and the commitments that I have day by day"