1.

BIRD FLU

Birds, just like people, get the flu. Bird flu viruses infect birds,
including chickens, other poultry, and wild birds such as
ducks. Most bird flu viruses can only infect other birds.
However, bird flu can pose health risks to people. The first
case of a bird flu virus infecting a person directly, H5N1, was
in Hong Kong in 1997. Since then, the bird flu virus has
spread to birds in countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East,
and Europe.

Human infection is still very rare, but the virus that causes the
infection in birds might change, or mutate, to more easily
infect humans. This could lead to a pandemic, a worldwide
outbreak of the illness.

During an outbreak of bird flu, people who have contact with

infected birds can become sick. It may also be possible to
catch bird flu by eating poultry or eggs that are not well
cooked or through contact with a person who has it. Bird flu
can make people very sick or even cause death. Antiviral
medicines may make the illness less severe, and may help
prevent the flu in people who were exposed to it. There is
currently no vaccine.
 2.Introduction: Bird Flu

The H5N1 strain of influenza - often referred to as bird flu -

is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans in
1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild
bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality
rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected.
Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could
cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the
potential to kill billions.
Flu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands
of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes
encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups
originate in water birds, and especially in ducks. The virus
is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not
usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to
move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to
persist.
But sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose
immune system it isnot adapted to. In chickens - originally
a forest bird and not a natural host - it causes a moderate
disease but can readily mutate to a more severe, highly
pathogenic strain. Just such a strain of H5N1 flu, named
after its surface proteins, began rampaging through
large chicken farms in east Asiasometime before 2003.
That was of concern because, in 1997, scientists found for
the first time that H5 flu could infect humans. It was found
in 18 people, six of whom died. All the poultry in Hong
Kong were destroyed to stop the threat. But it continued to
circulate, especially in China.
There were further human cases in China in 2003. Then in
early 2004 Vietnam reported widespread poultry outbreaks
and some human cases. After initial denials, Cambodia
and Thailand admitted they had outbreaks too, followed by
Indonesia, then China. That was immediately after China
had denied a New Scientist report that scientists strongly
suspected Chinese outbreaks.
The infection also reached Japan, Malaysia and South
Korea, but mass culling stopped it spreading there. But
outbreaks continued in China, Indonesia and Vietnam,
where the virus persisted, most probably in ducks. In
2005, China and Indonesia reported their first human
cases.
3.Symptoms of Bird Flu in Humans
Bird flu symptoms in people can vary. Symptoms
may start out as normal flu-like symptoms. This
can worsen to become a severe respiratory
disease that can be fatal.

In February 2005, researchers in Vietnam reported

human cases of bird flu in which the virus infected
the brain and digestive tract of two children. Both
died. These cases make it clear that bird flu in
humans may not always look like typical cases of
flu.
 5.Prevention and Treatment of Avian

Influenza A Viruses in People

The Best Prevention is to Avoid

Sources of Exposure
Currently, the best way to prevent infection
with avian influenza A viruses is to avoid
sources of exposure whenever possible. Most
human infections with avian influenza A
viruses have occurred following direct close
or prolonged contact with sick or dead
infected poultry.

People who work with poultry or who respond

to avian influenza outbreaks are advised to
follow recommended biosecurity and infection
control practices; these include use of
appropriate personal protective equipment
and careful attention to hand hygiene. In
addition, highly pathogenic avian influenza
(HPAI) poultry outbreak responders should
adhere to guidance from CDC and World
Health Organization (WHO) and receive
seasonal influenza vaccination annually and
take prophylactic antiviral medication during
response. They should also be monitored for
illness during and after responding to HPAI
outbreaks among poultry. Responders to low
pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) outbreaks
should also consider this guidance as part of
their response plan. Seasonal influenza
vaccination will not prevent infection with
avian influenza A viruses, but can reduce the
risk of co-infection with human and avian
influenza A viruses.
Antiviral Drugs Can Be Used to
Treat Illness
For treatment (and prevention) of human
infection with avian influenza A viruses, CDC
and WHO currently recommend oseltamivir or
zanamivir, two prescription antiviral
medications currently licensed for use in the
United States.

In particular, analyses of available HPAI H5N1

viruses circulating worldwide suggest that
most viruses are susceptible to oseltamivir
and zanamivir. However, some evidence of
resistance to oseltamivir has been reported in
HPAI H5N1 viruses isolated from some human
HPAI H5N1 cases. Monitoring for antiviral
resistance among avian influenza A viruses is
crucial and ongoing, and data directly inform
antiviral treatment recommendations.
The U.S. Government is Stockpiling H5N1 Vaccine for

People in Case Its Needed-

The United States federal government

maintains a stockpile of H5N1 vaccine. The
stockpiled vaccine could be used if a H5N1
virus begins transmitting easily from person to
person.

4.How Flu Spreads

Person to Person
People with flu can spread it to others up to
about 6 feet away. Most experts think that flu
viruses are spread mainly by droplets made
when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk.
These droplets can land in the mouths or
noses of people who are nearby or possibly be
inhaled into the lungs. Less often, a person
might also get flu by touching a surface or
object that has flu virus on it and then
touching their own mouth or nose.

To avoid this, people should stay away from

sick people and stay home if sick. It also is
important to wash hands often with soap and
water. If soap and water are not available, use
an alcohol-based hand rub. Linens, eating
utensils, and dishes belonging to those who
are sick should not be shared without washing
thoroughly first. Eating utensils can be
washed either in a dishwasher or by hand with
water and soap and do not need to be cleaned
separately. Further, frequently touched
surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected at
home, work and school, especially if someone
is ill.

The Flu Is Contagious

Most healthy adults may be able to infect
other people beginning 1
day before symptoms develop and up to 5 to
7 days after becoming sick. Children may
pass the virus for longer than 7 days.
Symptoms start 1 to 4 days after the virus
enters the body. That means that you may be
able to pass on the flu to someone else before
you know you are sick, as well as while you
are sick. Some people can be infected with
the flu virus but have no symptoms. During
this time, those persons may still spread the
virus to others.

Gregor Johann Mendel

Gregor Johann Mendel (20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884)
was a German-speaking Moravian scientist
and Augustinian friarwho gained posthumous fame as the
founder of the modern science of genetics. Though
farmers had known for centuries that crossbreeding of
animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits,
Mendel's pea plant experiments conducted between 1856
and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now
referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.
Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants:
plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color,
and flower position and color. With seed color, he showed
that when a yellow pea and a green pea were bred
together their offspring plant was always yellow. However,
in the next generation of plants, the green peas
reappeared at a ratio of 1:3. To explain this phenomenon,
Mendel coined the terms “recessive” and “dominant” in
reference to certain traits. (In the preceding example,
green peas are recessive and yellow peas are dominant.)
He published his work in 1866, demonstrating the actions
of invisible “factors”—now calledgenes—in providing for
visible traits in predictable ways.
The profound significance of Mendel's work was not
recognized until the turn of the 20th century (more than
three decades later) with the independent rediscovery of
these laws. Erich von Tschermak, Hugo de Vries, Carl
Correns, and William Jasper Spillmanindependently
verified several of Mendel's experimental findings,
ushering in the modern age of genetics.

Biography
Johann Mendel was born into an ethnic German family
in Heinzendorf bei Odrau, Moravian-
Silesian border, Austrian Empire (nowHynčice, Czech
Republic). (He was given the name Gregor when he
joined the Augustinian friars.) He was the son of Anton
and Rosine (Schwirtlich) Mendel, and had one older
sister, Veronika, and one younger, Theresia. They lived
and worked on a farm which had been owned by the
Mendel family for at least 130 years. During his childhood,
Mendel worked as a gardener and studied beekeeping.
Later, as a young man, he
attended gymnasium in Opava. He had to take four
months off during his gymnasium studies due to illness.
From 1840 to 1843, he studied practical and theoretical
philosophy and physics at the University of Olomouc
Faculty of Philosophy, taking another year off because of
illness. He also struggled financially to pay for his studies
and Theresia gave him her dowry. Later he helped
support her three sons, two of whom became doctors. He
became a friar because it enabled him to obtain an
education without having to pay for it himself.
When Mendel entered the Faculty of Philosophy, the
Department of Natural History and Agriculture was
headed by Johann Karl Nestler who conducted extensive
research of hereditary traits of plants and animals,
especially sheep. Upon recommendation of
his physics teacher Friedrich Franz, Mendel entered
the Augustinian St Thomas's Abbey and began his
training as a priest. Born Johann Mendel, he took the
name Gregor upon entering religious life. Mendel worked
as a substitute high school teacher. In 1850 he failed the
oral part, the last of three parts, of his exams to become a
certified high school teacher. In 1851 he was sent to
the University of Vienna to study under the sponsorship
ofAbbot C. F. Napp so that he could get more formal
education. At Vienna, his professor of physics
was Christian Doppler. Mendel returned to his abbey in
1853 as a teacher, principally of physics. In 1856 he took
the exam to become a certified teacher and again failed
the oral part In 1867 he replaced Napp as abbot of the
monastery.
After he was elevated as abbot in 1868, his scientific work
largely ended, as Mendel became consumed with his
increased administrative responsibilities, especially a
dispute with the civil government over their attempt to
impose special taxes on religious institutions. Mendel died
on 6 January 1884, at the age of 61,
in Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary(now Czech Republic),
from chronic nephritis. Czech composer Leoš
Janáček played the organ at his funeral. After his death,
the succeeding abbot burned all papers in Mendel's
collection, to mark an end to the disputes over taxation.

Mendel's law
1. One of two principles of heredity first formulated by Gregor
Mendel, founded on hisexperiments with pea plants and statin
g that the members of a pair of homologouschromosomes seg
regate during meiosis and are distributed to different gametes.
Alsocalled law of segregation, principle of segregation.
2. The second of these two principles, stating that each memb
er of a pair of homologouschromosomes segregates during m
eiosis independently of the members of other pairs,with the re
sult that alleles carried on different chromosomes are distribut
ed randomly to thegametes. Also called law of independent as
sortment, principle of independent assortment.