Disease

West Africa Bird Flu Outbreak Threatens Human Crisis

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that a highly contagious strain of avian influenza is wiping out poultry populations in farms across West Africa, and has the potential to cause a human health crisis.

The outbreak has already affected millions of birds in markets and farms in Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger and Ivory Coast, according to a statement issued by the agency.

It also cautions that the virus could spread to the human population in a region still recovering from a deadly Ebola outbreak.

“Urgent action is needed to strengthen veterinary investigation and reporting systems … to tackle the disease at the root, before there is a spillover to humans,” Juan Lubroth, head of the FAO’s animal health division, said in a statement.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza first infected humans shortly after emerging in Hong Kong during 1997.

Migrating birds and other factors have since spread the disease across Asia and into Europe and Africa.

The virus has been responsible for the deaths of many millions of birds and several hundred humans.