In recent months, bird flu has started raising red flags among scientists and public health officials. Apoorva Mandavilli, a New York Times reporter who covers infectious diseases, explains why we need to start taking bird flu seriously.
A pandemic is not inevitable, scientists say. But the outbreak has passed worrisome milestones in recent weeks, including cattle that may have been reinfected.
In its original form, the virus survives in just two countries. But a type linked to an oral vaccine used in other nations has already turned up in the West.
Outbreaks among the unvaccinated are a predictable consequence of falling immunization rates. But even vaccinated adults may be vulnerable to some illnesses.
While cases are climbing in China, the situation is very different from what it was when Covid-19 emerged five years ago, medical experts say. HMPV has circulated in humans for decades.
Tiny genetic alterations could help the bird flu virus enter cells in the upper respiratory tract, the C.D.C. said. But there is no sign that mutations are widespread in nature.
In crowded Kinshasa, two strains of mpox are sweeping through a community that relies on selling sex. Hundreds of thousands of vaccines sent to the country have not been used.
In a remote Congolese town, a medical mystery led to the discovery of alarming changes in the mpox virus and, eventually, to a global health emergency.
Yves Mujula, who works for Congoβs National Institute of Biomedical Research, and Serge Siklui, who works with the aid agency Alima, carry a cooler box of virus samples from a broken-down vehicle on the Kamituga road.
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