Cross Over: Bird Flu Infects Human For First Time

In October the Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned that we are rapidly approaching the end of antibiotics. According to the report, our medicines are no longer capable of fighting of severe bacterial infections, and viruses and bacteria around the world are evolving to be deadlier and more infectious.

Proof positive that nature is finding a way to outsmart humanity has just appeared in Taiwan, where the H6N1 strain of bird flu has, according to researchers, found a way to cross over from poultry to humans.

This is the first known infection of its kind.

What’s most troubling about the infection is that researchers have no idea how the woman contracted the virus, because she had no contact with poultry, suggesting the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

A strain of bird flu that scientists thought could not infect people has shown up in a Taiwanese woman, a nasty surprise that shows scientists must do more to spot worrisome flu strains before they ignite a global outbreak, doctors say.

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The woman, 20, was hospitalized in May with a lung infection. After being treated with Tamiflu and antibiotics, she was released. One of her throat swabs was sent to the Taiwan Centres for Disease Control. Experts there identified it as the H6N1 bird flu, widely circulating in chickens on the island.

The patient, who was not identified, worked in a deli and had no known connection to live birds. Investigators couldn’t figure out how she was infected. But they noted several of her close family and friends also developed flu-like symptoms after spending time with her, though none tested positive for H6N1. The research was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

The question now becomes, how long before these new diseases and infections cause a pandemic when modern medicines no longer work to treat them?