Günter Weiss, Innsbruck epidemiologist and director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine, expects a global pandemic in the medium term, triggered by a “human flu virus” in combination with the bird flu virus. “This could result in a new, serious pandemic or a new virus for the pandemic,” Weiss said in an APA interview. However, it does not have to be similar to the effects caused by Corona.
After all, the swine flu epidemic was “relatively mild,” the renowned expert explained, stressing that he “doesn’t want to spread panic in any way” or be cautious. Weiss reminded us that he didn’t do this during the corona pandemic: “But you have to know what’s going to happen to us so that you can be prepared in the end.”
The top doctor noted that the influenza virus is “capable of infecting different species – birds, pigs, humans”. “The virus is constantly changing. A new virus that contains elements of different influenza viruses from different animal species can emerge, infect humans and not be recognized by the immune system. This can lead to a new serious epidemic. The new virus triggers an epidemic,” Weiss said. “I assume something like this will happen in the near future,” the infectious disease expert said. In recent years and months there have been more viral interactions and “jumping of viruses” between humans and animals.
Regarding bird flu, an “influenza type,” Weiss spoke of a “quiet epidemic” that spreads especially in Europe and “primarily affects birds.” As a result, lakhs of birds are affected and many die. “Isolated” or “a few hundred cases” also occurred in people who had “close contact” with the animals. About 50 percent of them died. Direct person-to-person transmission has not yet occurred.
Weiss, however, cited cases of four farmers in the United States who were not seriously ill but infected. The starting point was that the bird flu virus was transmitted to cows, and infections were spread through direct contact and through milk. “This shows the possibility of the virus mutating,” said the doctor, returning to the starting point of his hypothesis or prediction.
Such an epidemic does not necessarily have to be accompanied by the coronavirus with consequences for society as a whole. Sometimes — especially in the later stages — you “don’t put your rational mind aside,” Weiss noted, citing, among other things, school closings and the like. Instead, like this country, there should be “genuine, fact-based debate” and “never looking for someone to blame”. Tyrolean cited Switzerland as a positive example in this context.
In any case, one thing can be said in general: Europe and Austria are becoming a “playground” for a variety of infectious diseases that did not exist before in this form. Globalization, global mobility, travel to more remote areas, restrictions on animal habitats in rainforests and tropical regions, and associated increased contact, as well as global and climate warming, have resulted in the spread of new pathogens and forms of transmission. Weiss insisted.
“There are more infections,” emphasized the epidemiologist. In the summer you will see more infectious diseases, ticks and mosquitoes will move further north due to the warmer temperatures and can spread a variety of old and new pathogens for longer periods of time.
Bacterial infections are easily treatable in this country with antibiotics, says Weiss. At the same time, we are increasingly dealing with the problem of multi-resistant antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which are currently only treatable to a very limited extent. This resistance can result, among other things, from the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry in countries like China or India. These multi-resistant pathogens are shed by animals and present in the food chain in low levels. If you travel to these areas, you run the risk of pathogens “joining” the trip home and causing complications if you need hospital treatment, the expert explained. Targeted use of antibiotics is very important in this country. It only helps with bacterial infections, not those with a viral origin like common respiratory infections, Weiss said. Many antibiotics, especially broad-spectrum antibiotics, increase so-called selection pressure, resulting in the development of resistant bacteria.
In medicine, however, people, animals and the environment must be viewed more closely together, with the epidemiologist stressing the importance of “one health”. The exchange of experience and knowledge between human and veterinary medicine is becoming increasingly essential. Coincidentally, Weiss is a speaker at the “One Health Symposium” at the Veterinary University of Vienna and the Medical University of Innsbruck next week in the Tyrolean capital.
