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PURELY_TO_VOTE OP t1_j7stcf0 wrote

Reply to comment by ProfKlase in Is the H5N1 bird flu unusually zoonotic compared to other viruses? by PURELY_TO_VOTE

Thanks for this!

Based on your bonus segment, I'm gathering that H5N1's ability to infect a diverse range of hosts is not that atypical or unique, and that many viruses have this property.

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iayork t1_j7tzlu4 wrote

H5N1 is more versatile than the vast majority of viruses. There are lots of viruses and H5N1 certainly isn't unique, but it is unusual.

H5N1 is among a fairly small number of viruses that have a very clear and obvious potential to cause human outbreaks, and for that reason public health groups have tracked it closely since it emerged in the 1990s.

Many of the other viruses in that category (obvious human pandemic potential) are also influenza viruses (H7N9, various swine influenza viruses), but there are many others - you've probably heard of Ebola, Monkeypox, and Zika, for example, but there are a dozen or two others including Nipah, Marburg, Lassa fever, MERS-CoV, and so on.

(Bat coronaviruses were also on that list since the early 2000s when SARS, and COVID proved the virologists right.)

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