What is the difference between H5N1 and Bird Flu?

Answer 1

The two main differences, besides being caused by two different viruses, would be that the H1N1/09 pandemic Swine Flu spreads very easily from human to human and is symptomatically milder than the Avian flu.

H1N1 spreads rapidly from person to person, which led to its being a pandemic in 2009-2010, while the Avian (bird) flu does not spread easily in humans. Bird flu is very rare overall, and spreads mostly from direct bird-to-human exposure. It has had extremely rare cases that spread from human-to-human but only among family members in the same households.

Swine flu has comparatively mild symptoms in most people, and causes fewer deaths than even the seasonal flu viruses usually do, while the bird flu is especially virulent and deadly with a mortality rate of 50 to 60 % of those infected.

They are both viruses that are relatively new to human infection. The pandemic swine flu (A-H1N1/09) is a new mutation and since there was no direct exposure to the virus before it was found in 2009, there was little resistance to contagion. The Avian "bird" flu (A-H5N1) is also a new virus for humans to get. Avian flu is much more rare among humans than in birds, but it is rarely transmitted to humans, and not by person to person transmission so far.

Swine flu is a mutation that caused a new subtype of influenza A. It contains genetic material from the avian flu virus, several strains of hog viruses, and human flu virus.

Here are the most common symptoms of each:

Avian flu-

~ Virus causes lung inflammation

~ Immune system over-reacts, creates a lot of white blood cells and a natural virus-fighting chemical (Cytokine)

~ Chemical runs in blood stream in such high quantities that it creates tiny holes in the blood vessels

~ Plasma leaks out of the holes and into the lungs

~ Victim drowns from the inside

Swine flu-

~ Virus is very similar to seasonal human flu

~ Starts with a bad cough and headache

~ Fever and fatigue ensue

~ After about a week, symptoms are relieved except for the fever and often the cough

~ After 24 hours of no fever, you are considered no longer contagious

On the humorous side:

As far as the care goes, with Bird flu you need to seek TWEETMENT, and for swine flu you can apply OINKMENT.

Answer 2

Bird flu is a general term for some strains of influenza (flu) that are

that are found in poultry and other birds. It is more properly called Avian Influenza. There are two strains of this kind of influenza virus are known to infect humans in very rare circumstances. H5N1 is one of the specific strains of bird flu that infects humans. H7N9 is the other and new strain just discovered in humans in Spring 2013.

Flu viruses are a group of RNA viruses categorized to the three main types of influenzaviruses found in humans and other animals. These are classified as Influenza Types A, B, and C. "Bird flu" refers to an illness caused by any of the many different strains of Type A flu viruses that are endemic in birds.

All known bird (or avian) flu viruses are Influenza A viruses. Inf

luenza A viruses have been isolated from many species, including humans, pigs, horses, marine mammals, and a wide range of domestic birds but because wildfowl and shorebirds are thought to form the main influenza virus reservoir in nature, infections resulting from Influenza A viruses are sometimes termed "bird flu."

The Influenza A virus genome consists of negative-stranded RNA, which codes for 11 proteins. These viruses are classified on the basis of two of these proteins which are expressed on the surface of the virion (virus particles); these are the hemagglutinn (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) glycoproteins.

Sixteen different HA and 9 NA subtypes have been isolated from viruses in wild birds and poultry throughout the world. These can be found in numerous protein combinations (for example: H2N2, H16N3, H5N1, H7N9). Mature HA proteins mediate binding of the virus particles to host cells.

Influenza viruses of subtypes H5 and H7 are highly pathogenic and contagious in birds and can cause outbreaks of bird flu in wild fowl and poultry. People have been known to contract H5N1 bird flu by contamination through bird handling and roughly 50% of those have died. It does not usually transmit from human to human. Since 2003 360 people have died worldwide of H5N1 bird flu and tens of millions of birds have died.

H5N1 is but one subtype of "bird flu" which happens to be especially contagious and pathogenic. It is rare in humans.

At Easter time in 2013, another and more rare strain (H7N9) was found to be the organism that caused two deaths in Shanghai, China. These are the first two known human infections and deaths by avian flu viruses other than H5N1. A third victim is critically ill, also in China. None gave the flu to the others and no close contacts of any of the three have been infected. Studies are rapidly getting underway to learn more about the new strain.

Answer 3

Today, because of the pandemic, the terms are both sometimes used interchangeably to mean the 2009 Swine Flu of the Pandemic. But, more appropriately, that virus should be called the "A-H1N1/09 Influenza" (or "Influenza A, Novel H1N1 virus"; "H1N1/09 Pandemic Flu"; or "2009 Swine Flu").

"Swine Flu" is also a name that has been used more generally (historically) to talk about an animal flu that was first identified in the 1930's and was known to have originated in hogs. Some people think it may have been present ever since the 1918 pandemic of the "Spanish Flu". It was known that the 1918 flu virus, that was so severe, had been transmitted at the time of that pandemic from humans to pigs at least in one location. Others speculate that maybe it actually all started in pigs even back prior to the 1918 pandemic, but no data to verify the speculation is available now as empirical proof. (See the related questions below about when Swine Flu started, what caused the 2009 Swine Flu, and about other names for Swine Flu).

Therefore, to be sure you understand which sub-type someone is talking about (i.e., the human Pandemic Swine Flu vs. the animal swine flu that pigs get), and to be sure that others are understanding you, in the US it is more clear to use (or look for a reference to): the year 2009, '09, "Pandemic", or "Novel" in the name for the new pandemic swine flu. In other countries there are different distinctions between the two types of swine flu, see the related question below for more on the different names in different places.

It can be confusing, since "Swine Flu" and "Influenza A H1N1" are both also used to refer to the animal flu virus started in pigs. These names also are used for the flu which some humans have occasionally gotten from pigs. And, since all these terms have been being used for all the strains of "Swine Flu", including the one causing the 2009 pandemic/"Novel" A-H1N1/09.

Here are some more clarifying facts:

• All the "swine flus", and all H1N1 flu viruses are forms (sub-types) of the Type A Influenza.

• There are "H1N1" influenza viruses that are not "swine flu", e.g., some types of the regular/seasonal flu are actually also H1N1.
• All the different viruses that are called swine flu viruses are of the H1N1 sub-types.

• Swine Flu is a nickname used for:

• "Novel" A-H1N1/09 (the 2009 pandemic flu),
• the original H1N1 in humans from the 1930's,
• the "Swine Flu" in humans from the 70's, 80's, and,
• the H1N1 virus that causes flu in pigs (from which the other strains have evolved).

• The original Swine Flu in pigs contained only swine/hog genetic material and was only infective from pig to pig.

• H1N1 is the name for the original Swine Flu that mutated allowing humans to start getting it from pigs decades before the 2009 pandemic (in the 1930's). It could be passed pig to pig, pig to human (rarely when humans were in very close proximity to pigs as farmers or workers in pig farms), human to pig (also rarely), then human to human even less often. That sub-type contains both swine and human genetic material.
• "Novel H1N1" is the name coined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the flu of the 2009 pandemic (see above, and below in related questions, for many other names it is being called).
• The Novel H1N1 (now also called "A-H1N1/09" by the World Health Organization-WHO) mutated from the prior strains and contains genetic material from pigs (swine flu), from humans (human flu), and from birds (avian flu).
• It is called "Novel" because it is unique and a completely new strain of virus never seen until just before the '09 pandemic.
• It was created through mutation in a way that is called a "triple reassortant" process (sometimes also called "triple reassortment"). It means, in this case that, within the pigs, the virus underwent a mutation that combined three different species' genetic material (pigs, birds, humans). Some people also call it quadruple reassortant, because it actually contains genetic material from American and Eurasian swine along with the bird and human material. But even more accurately it would be called a quintuple reassortant with the five different kinds of genetic material: bird, human, American swine, Asian swine and European swine.
• "A-H1N1/09" is infective from pig to pig, pig to human, human to pig, and human to human.
• It is possible (but not yet proven) that it could also pass to and from birds in some very crowded conditions of pigs and birds together, or continuous or very close contact between humans, pigs, and birds, such as might occur at crowded farm facilities of ducks, geese, or other poultry kept together with hogs and with frequent human worker contact in over-crowded and unsanitary conditions.

Answer 4

H5N1 is a very dangerous virus that can and WILL kill more than half of the people that it infects. Fortunatley, it is not very infectious and is only spread by dead birds. H1N1 on the other hand is EXTREMLY easy to catch and is very infectious, capable of infecting tens of thousands of people in only a few days.

But it is very unlikely to die from it, more than 99% of all people who get it survive. Both are communicable by humans, and both have vaccines.

Answer 5

H5N1 "Bird Flu" (Avian Flu) is an extremely virulent influenza virus that can infect birds, occasionally pigs, rarely infections in other animals, and very rarely humans. Fortunately, it does not spread very easily. The mode of transmission is typically direct contact with birds or their urine/feces or saliva. Only extremely rare human to human transmissions have been known to occur. No instance of the virus spreading beyond a first generation of close human contacts has been reported. It does, however, have a very high mortality rate in animals and in humans (approximately 60% Death Rate in humans).

H1N2 is one of the seasonal flu types we see circulating in flu seasons. It is currently endemic in both human and pig populations. The virus does not cause more severe illness than other influenza viruses in humans and has not caused any significant increases in influenza activity compared with the other typical human influenza viruses.

H1N1 is the flu virus usually called by the swine flu name, and is endemic in pigs and also called pig flu or hog flu. People who work on farms very closely with pigs with this type of flu have been known to catch it, but not usually.

A subtype of H1N1 caused the 2009 pandemic swine flu and is known as H1N1/09. It contains genetic elements of avian flu, human flu and swine flu that combined to form the virus that went pandemic in 2009. See the related question below about what caused the 2009 swine flu for more information on how it mutated and developed.

H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 are the only known Influenza A virus subtypes currently circulating among humans. There are also Influenza B virus subtypes that can infect humans, as well as Influenza C. The most common (and the ones that cause all recent influenza pandemics) are the Influenza A viruses.

Answer 6

H5N1 influenza virus is an avian flu, it is often called bird flu and is more specific than "the flu". Usually when people refer to the flu they do not specify (and most often don't know) which strain of the flu it is, they use "flu" (influenza) to refer to viral respiratory infections in a more general way.

So, H5N1 is a flu, an influenza virus, but all strains and types of flu are not H5N1. For example, another subtype of influenza virus is the now well-known 2009 pandemic swine flu, which is identified as Human Influenza virus Type A-H1N1-09. There are other strains that also have the protein configuration H1N1 as the subtype (this is how they are named), and there are many strains for each of them. H1N1 viruses are the viruses that have been involved in pandemics and are commonly included in the seasonal flu vaccines.

There is no real difference in treatment for the different influenza viruses in humans, therefore, it most often is not necessary in medicine to do the lab testing to identify the specific virus involved.

Answer 7

H1N1 is swine flu H5N1 is chicken flu