With strategies against the growing risk of an avian influenza pandemic, this book provides important new information on H5N1 as well as other bird flu viruses.

According to the World Health Organization, 385 human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) were reported between 2003 and 2008, resulting in 243 deaths. The risk that the avian influenza virus may soon cause the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century is widely acknowledged and has become a matter of public concern and rapidly growing scientific interest.

This volume gives an overview of the most important results of the latest research efforts and provides information about the ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza, with particular emphasis on recent H5N1 outbreaks. New vaccination strategies, the use of anti-virals and other control measures to combat outbreaks of bird flu are discussed in detail; and the threat of a pandemic originating from avian influenza viruses is illustrated by the example of the Spanish influenza of 1918, which killed more than 30 million people worldwide.

This comprehensive publication on avian influenza viruses and their relevance for human influenza will be of great value to all influenza virologists, molecular biologists, public health scientists, veterinary virologists, ecologists and scientists engaged in drug design and vaccine development.

For more information, visit the web site of publisher, Karger.