Fast facts about influenza

Nutrition Health Review, Summer, 2004

* Almost all new influenza viruses originate in China because of that country's particular ecology and lack of standardized farm sanitary standards.

* Influenzas of all kinds begin as harmless viruses carried by aquatic migratory birds. The viruses do not affect the birds, but they are passed on to humans and other birds through the animals' feces and urine.

* Influenza viruses are particularly harmful to chickens, geese, and ducks. A recent strain of avian flu has damaged those populations.

* Avian influenzas can spread to humans by a domino-like chain of events, beginning in small, rural farmlands. Those farm animals are usually housed together, where many territorial fights break out among the birds. These birds spread their own viruses, which in turn can be spread to swine, which act as "viral mixing vessels." The influenza virus percolates inside swine because of their unique genetic makeup. Eventually, the swine may pass the influenza to humans.

* In 1918, the aquatic bird flu made its way to Kansas and spread quickly among United States soldiers and cavalry. When these troops shipped overseas to fight in World War I, many of them were already lethally infected.

* In a span of about 18 months, the 1918 influenza virus killed an estimated 40 to 50 million people.

* The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization claim that the only way to stop massive influenza outbreaks is to isolate suspected infected flocks, quarantine them, then destroy them.