Bird flu or avian influenza also called avian flu, is a disease caused by many strains of influenza virus that primarily affects birds especially in domesticated birds such as ducks, chickens, or turkeys. As a result, this strain was called highly pathogenic (very severe and contagious) avian influenza and termed H5N1.
Bird flu is named with H or N depending on the proteins found on the surface of the virus.
Bird flu is caused by strains of the influenza virus that have evolved to be specially adapted to enter avian cells.
It’s not usual, but bird flu can infect people. The most common subtypes that may affect humans are A(H5N1), A(H7N9) and A(H9N2). The symptoms can range from mild (pink eye) to severe flu-like illness that results in respiratory failure and some tomes to death.
The 2013 virus has different surface proteins, H7 and N9, hence the name H7N9. Other bird flu types include H7N7, H5N8, H5N2, and H9N2.
Human influenza strains are best adapted to humans. A few cases may occur in an accidental host, such as when people who have extensive contact with sick birds get the bird flu. Influenza viruses mutate easily and often. These mutations can arise spontaneously in a single virus or can occur when two different influenza strains get close enough together to exchange genetic material.
Mutation Types
There are two major types of mutations in influenza viruses:
Antigenic shifts, where large RNA segments are interchanged between different influenza virus type.
Antigenic drifts, where small RNA sequences are changed.
The antigenic shifts are usually responsible for developing new strains. For example, the 2009 swine flu pandemic was caused by a virus that included genetic material from pig influenza, avian influenza, and human influenza strains. New mutations can allow the virus to evade the body’s immune system and makes older vaccines ineffective.
Sometimes a flu virus will mutate in a way that makes it able to infect a new species.
Serious pandemic influenza occurs when a relatively new strain of the influenza virus arises that is highly contagious to humans. The deadliest pandemic in modern history was the 1918 influenza, also known as the Spanish flu. The 1918 virus spread rapidly and killed tens of millions of people worldwide. Mortality was especially high in healthy young adults. Although the 1918 virus was a human influenza virus, it had many genes that likely came from a strain of bird flu.
Symptoms and signs
Symptoms occur approximately two to eight days of incubation. Infected people experience typical flu-like symptoms that may include:
- Fever (above 38 C //100.4 F).
- Malaise.
- Cough (usually dry or nonproductive of sputum).
- Sore throat.
- Muscle aches and/or pain.
- Nausea, vomiting.
- Diarrhea.
- Headache.
- Joint pain.
- Lethargy or fatigue.
- Nasal secretions (runny nose or sneezing).
- Insomnia.
- Eye infections.
This viral infection can progress to pneumonia and even respiratory failure. Bird flu causes a very aggressive form of pneumonia (acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS) that is often fatal.
Diagnose Bird Flu or Avian Influenza
Routine tests for “human influenza A” will be positive in patients with bird flu but are not specific for the avian virus. To make a specific diagnosis of bird flu, the virus can be detected in sputum by several methods, including culture or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR detects nucleic acid from the influenza A virus.
During and after infection with bird flu, the body makes antibodies against the virus. Blood tests can detect these antibodies, but this requires one sample at the onset of disease and another sample several weeks later. Thus, results are usually not available until the patient has recovered or died.
Allopathic treatment for Bird Flu or Avian Influenza
For the scientist of allopathic medicines, it has not been possible to conduct rigorous medical or medication treatment trials for bird flu. Allopathic doctors only advise not to touch any ill-appearing or dead birds.
World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommend antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir for the treatment and prevention of avian influenza A viruses along with supportive care. Currently, there is not any allopathic vaccine to protect against H7N9 types of bird flu.
Complications of Bird Flu or Avian Influenza
The complications of bird flu are frequently dire and include:
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
- Pneumonia.
- Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
- Abdominal pain.
- Lung collapse.
- Shock.
- Altered mental status.
- Seizure.
- Organ(s) failure.
- Death ⇑.
Unfortunately, with allopathic treatment the mortality rate varies somewhat between strains with H5N1 at about 55% and H7N9 at about 37%>.
Homeopathic treatment for Bird Flu or Avian Influenza
In my (Dr Qaisar Ahmed MD, DHMS) experience no single remedy can cure a disease that’s why for bird flu or Avian influenza, doctor have to advise combination according to each and every patient’s individual sign, symptoms and history.
These homeopathic medications can be used in conjunction with antiretroviral therapy along with other treatments for influenza and have been shown to be very effective in alleviating some of the commonly encountered symptoms and related complications.
Utmost care must be ensured and these Homeopathic medicine for any patient/person should not be taken without consulting a good homeopathic doctor.
Common bird flu or Avian influenza medicines are:
Influenzinum
Advise it to your patient as vaccination/prophylaxes in sensitive areas or seasons. Homeopathic vaccine: the nosode of influenza has with many practitioners taken the place of Baptisia as the routine remedy in epidemics. It may be given in the 12th, 30th or 200th potency, either in the form of tincture, pilules, or diskettes; or ten globules may be dissolved in six ounces of water, and of this a dessertspoonful may be given for a dose.
Influenzinum could be repeated every two hours. This will be found sufficient to control a large proportion of the cases.
The general directions I (Dr. Qaisar Ahmed MD, DHMS) give to my patients are these: When “colds” appear in a family let all those who are unaffected take Arsenicum Album 200 thrice daily, and let the patients take Influenzinum 200 qH (every hour). This generally prevents the spread of the trouble and clears up the “colds,” whether they are of the influenza type or not.
Influenza has the property of developing old troubles, and thus it takes an infinite variety of forms in different persons, so that Influenzinum need not be expected to cure all cases unaided, or, indeed, to be appropriate to every case.
Mercsole
Sneezing. Nostrils raw, ulcerated; nasal bones swollen. Yellow-green, fetid, pus-like discharge. Coryza. Throat bluish-red swelling. Constant desire to swallow. Putrid sore throat. Stitches into ear on swallowing; fluids return through nose. Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed. Aphonia. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Burning in throat. Cough, with yellow muco-purulent expectoration. Stitches in lungs. Whooping-cough with nosebleed. Cough worse with smoke.
Arnica Montana
Coughs, paroxysmal, at night, during sleep, worse exercise. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Acute tonsillitis, swelling of soft palate and uvula. Pneumonia; approaching paralysis. Hoarseness from overuse of voice. Cough produced by weeping and lamenting. Dry, from tickling low down in trachea. Bloody expectoration. Dyspnea with hemoptysis. All bones and cartilages of chest painful. Violent spasmodic cough, with facial herpes. Whooping cough, child cries before coughing. Pleurodynia.
Actia Rasemosa/Cimicifuga
Night cough, dry, constant, short – on every attempt to speak. Throat tickling with violent cough. Viscid mucus in throat; hawking. Dry spot in throat, causing cough; dryness of pharynx, with constant desire to swallow; fulness in pharynx: mouth and palate swollen; neck stiff. Inflamed throat. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
Piper Nigrum
Bird flu or Avian influenza – Heavy headache, as if temples were pressed in; pressure in nasal and facial bones. Eyes inflamed and burning. Red burning face. Bursting aching in eyeballs. Nose itches; sneezing; nosebleed. Lips dry and cracked. Throat sore, feels raw, burns. Burning pain in tonsils. Dyspnea, cough with pain in chest in spots, feels as if spitting blood. Palpitation, cardiac pain slow intermittent pulse.
Gastric discomfort. Full feeling. Great thirst. Flatulence. Tympanites. Colic and cramps.
Piper longum
Asthma, upper and lower respiratory tract infections, arthritis, heart disease, common cold, cough, indigestion, stress, sinus congestion, improves immune system speed up the recovery, and reduces fever. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
Ginseng
Upper respiratory tract infections – Voice rough and hoarse. Croup. Dry cough in paroxysms. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Short anxious or slow and deep with exertion, tightness of chest. Contractive pain across lower thorax. Aching and oppression in the chest. Prostration of strength, and lassitude in the limbs.
Arsenicum Album
Bird flu or Avian influenza, sore throats, and chest problems; symptoms with burning pain and feelings of weakness, restlessness, and anxiety, head may feel hot while the rest of the body is cold, problems worse near midnight. The nose often feels stopped up, and the person may sneeze repeatedly, without relief. White, think, burning mucus.
Belladonna
This remedy relieves high fever of sudden onset with sweating, sudden stopping of nasal discharge, and it is replaced by a congestive, usually throbbing, headache and high fever.
Natrum Muriaticum:
Colds with clear/transparent nasal discharge, sneezing (worse in the morning), headache, and a diminished sense of smell and/or taste.
Nux vomica:
This relieves spasmodic sneezing in the morning, with a dry nose during the night, nose alternates between having fluent discharge and being dry and blocked. The discharge is usually fluent in the daytime and obstructed at night.
Pulsatilla:
This remedy relieves non-irritant yellowish nasal discharge with a dry nose at night that becomes runny during the day, and loss of smell and taste, patient have thick, yellow or greenish mucus, and a bland discharge (a discharge that does not irritate or burn the nostrils/facial skin); nasal congestion worse at night, especially upon lying down, which leads to mouth breathing during sleep. Nasal congestion tends to alternate sides and is worse in a warm room while fluent in the open air.
Aconitum Napellus:
This remedy relieves high fever of sudden onset, with a hot face and dry skin, especially after exposure to intense cold, Patient wakes from sleep with a dry, hoarse, croupy cough, dry mouth, shortness of breath, and little expectoration. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
The cough is worse from being cold, drinking cold water, from tobacco smoke, lying on either side, and at night/after midnight.
Allium Cepa:
This relieves spasmodic sneezing and runny nose with an irritating, watery discharge – profuse, fluent, burning nasal discharge which are worse in warm room and better in open air., improved by fresh air. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Raw feeling in the nose with a tingling sensation as well as violent sneezing.
Baryta Carbonica:
Patients who frequently catch colds from getting chilled. A runny nose and swollen upper lip, swollen lymph nodes, tonsils, and adenoids in kids are typical symptoms. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
Drosera Rotundifolia:
Discharge of blood on blowing the nose. Black pores on the nose. Constant dryness of the nose. Great sensibility to acid smells. Fluent coryza with sneezing. Hardness of hearing, with buzzing, roaring, humming and drumming in the ears. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Tingling and shooting in the larynx, which excites a slight cough. Fever, shuddering over the whole body, with heat of the face, icy coldness of the hands and absence of thirst, or shivering with coldness and paleness of the hands, the feet, and the face. Intermittent fever, with nausea, and inclination to vomit, and other gastric sufferings, or with sore throat.
Dulcamara:
Epistaxis of a very hot and bright red blood, with pressive pain above the nose. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Coryza; dry; with stoppage of the nose. Sore throat. Burning heat in the palate. Oppressed breathing, from a cold; from accumulation of mucus. Cough, similar to whooping-cough. In evening temperature with severe body pains.
Natrum Arsenicicum:
Coryza. Diphtheria. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Eyes inflammation; granular lids. Hemoptysis. Interscapular pain. Miner’s asthma. Nose infections. Esophageal constriction. Pityriasis rubra. Post-nasal catarrh. Tuberculosis. Smell defective or lost. Nose constantly stuffed. Nasal discharge yellow, tough; hawked or drops from posterior nares. Pieces of hardened bluish mucus flow from nose, after which mucous membrane feels raw. Tonsils, fauces, and pharynx purplish and edematous; patched with yellow mucus; diphtheria. Uvula, tonsils, and pharynx thickened; surface irregular, swollen, purplish red, covered with yellowish-grey mucus, which is hawked out. Hawks up greyish or white tenacious mucus.
Gelsemium:
Lethargy and aching, with headache and droopy eyes, watery nasal discharge, sneezing, and fullness at the root of the nose; Fever and chills run up and down the spine, and heat or pressure may be felt in the face and nose, trembles and is shaky, or feels extremely dull. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
Gelsemium is often helpful for colds that come on in hot weather.
Mezereum:
Sneezing, coryza, interior of nose, excoriated. Post-nasal adenoids. Soreness and burning in bones of thorax. Constriction across chest. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Cough. Otalgia, with drawing and acute Pullings. Itching and oozing eruption. Adenoids – postnasal. Diminution of smell, with sensation of dryness in nose, and sometimes ineffectual desire to sneeze. Frequent sneezing, accompanied by pain of excoriation in chest. Fluent coryza, with secretion of liquid and yellow (thin, at times bloody) mucus, excoriation and burning in nose, and eruption on lips. Hoarseness, with burning and dryness in throat, irritation which excites coughing. Difficult respiration. Intermittent fever, Chilliness, shivering, and coldness of whole body.
Oscillococcinum
Respiratory tract swelling, stiffness. Bird flu or Avian influenza symptoms like headaches, body aches, chills, fever, and fatigue. Coryza. Fluent rhinitis. ENT infections. Cough. Rattling cough.
Kali Bichromicum:
Thick, greenish, irritating nasal discharge, post-nasal drip, sneezing- worse by exposure to cold or in the open air. Bird flu or Avian influenza.
Sabadilla:
Bird flu or Avian influenza. Spasmodic sneezing, with running nose. Coryza, with severe frontal pains and redness of eyes and lachrymation. Copious, watery, nasal discharge, tough phlegm, Vertigo, Over-sensitiveness to odors, headache and sleeplessness. Eyelids red, burning, lachrymation. Difficult hearing.
Dry throat, Sensation of a lump in throat with constant necessity to swallow. Chronic sore throat; worse, from cold air.
Rhus Toxicodendron:
If a cold begins with stiffness and body aches, especially during cool damp weather or weather changes, and leads to nasal congestion or sore throat, sneezing; coryza from getting wet. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Swelling of nose, the person feels extremely restless warmth and motion bring relief (both physically and mentally). Swollen glands. Sticking pain on swallowing. Parotitis.
Dry, teasing cough from midnight until morning, during a chill, or when putting hands out of bed. Hemoptysis from overexertion, Influenza, with aching in all bones, Bronchial coughs, worse on awaking and with expectoration of small plugs of mucus.
Capsicum Autumnale:
Acute drawing pains in the ears. Itching and pressure in the bottom of the auditory tube. Painful swelling on the bone behind the ear. Tearing behind ear. Diminution of hearing after previous burning and stinging in the ear. Anosmia.
Epistaxis, especially in bed, in the morning. Painful pimples under the nostrils. Dry coryza, with tingling and tickling in the nostrils. Sore throat with painful deglutition and pulling sensation in the pharynx. Inflammation, with dark redness and burning of the throat. Hoarseness. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Cough, more violent in the evening and at night, with pains in the body. Deep breathing. Oppressed respiration. Pulse irregular, and often intermittent fever. Febrile shivering and cold over the whole body, with ill-humor increasing with the cold, or else with anxiety, dizziness and dullness of the head.
Hepar Sulph:
Nose sore, ulcerated. Soreness of nostrils, with catarrhal troubles. Sneezes every time patient goes into a cold, dry wind, with running from nose, later, thick, offensive discharge. Stopped up every time patient goes out into cold air. Smell like old cheese. Hay-fever (Hepar Sulph lower potency will start secretions and profuse drainage in stuffy colds).
Sensation as if a plug and of a splinter in throat. Quinsy, with impending suppuration. Stitches in throat extending to the ear when swallowing. Hawking up of mucus.
Loses voice and coughs when exposed to dry, cold wind. Hoarseness, with loss of voice. Cough troublesome when walking. Bird flu or Avian influenza. Cough/Choking cough/Rattling, croaking cough excited whenever any part of the body gets cold or uncovered, or from eating anything cold. Croup with loose, rattling cough; worse in morning; suffocative attacks; has to rise up and bend head backwards. Anxious, wheezing, moist breathing, asthma worse in dry cold air; better in damp.
My (Dr. Qaisar Ahmed) prescription for patients with Bird flu or Avian influenza:
We have to make a combination from list above, because no one medicine has all those symptoms with which a patient came to the doctor.
If our target is to destroy something (here our target is virus) we have to choose HDP (Highly Diluted Potencies).
For changes in body like pains, aches nasal stiffness, sour and/or burning/aching throat etc.; Doctor should be kind- that means prescribe lower potencies.
Advise your patient to take sunbath few times a day.
I’m sure your patient will be completely cured with in two/three days without any signs.
Flu, influenza and Bird flu or Avian influenza prevention
Flu vaccine
Annual Homeopathic influenza Bird flu or Avian influenza vaccination can prevent most of the illness and death that influenza causes. The recommendations for everyone 6 hours of age and older, should receive Homeopathic flu, Bird flu or Avian influenza vaccine each year.
Flu, Bird flu or Avian influenza vaccine (influenza vaccine made from inactivated and sometimes attenuated [noninfective Homeopathic dilutions] virus or virus components) is specifically recommended for those who are at high risk for developing serious complications from Bird flu or Avian influenza infection.
Prognosis and complications
In general, the majority (about 90%-95%) of people who get the disease feel terrible (see symptoms) but recover with no problems with Homeopathic treatment. Approximately 55% of people diagnosed with, eventually die from the disease if not treated with Homeopathy; the H7N9 strain has a similar death rate of about 37%. Individuals who survive may have long-term problems if organ systems are severely damaged.
People with suppressed immune systems historically have worse outcomes than uncompromised individuals. Current data suggest that pregnant individuals, children under 2 years of age, young adults, and individuals with any immune compromise or debilitation are likely to have a worse prognosis.
Complications of Bird flu or Avian influenza may resemble severe viral pneumonia or the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a coronavirus strain).
Pneumonia (viral and secondary bacterial pneumonia) is the most serious complication of the any type of flu as it can cause death. Other complications include organ failure, sinus and ear infections, asthma exacerbations, and/or bronchitis.
P. S: This article is only for doctors having good knowledge about Homeopathy and allopathy, for learning purpose(s).
For proper consultation and treatment, please visit our clinic.
None of above-mentioned medicine(s) is/are the full/complete treatment, but just hints for treatment; every patient has his/her own constitutional medicine.
To order medicine by courier, please send your details at WhatsApp– +923119884588
Dr. Sayyad Qaisar Ahmed (MD {Ukraine}, DHMS), Abdominal Surgeries, Oncological surgeries, Gastroenterologist, Specialist Homeopathic Medicines.
Senior research officer at Dnepropetrovsk state medical academy Ukraine.
Location: Al-Haytham clinic, Umer Farooq Chowk Risalpur Sadder (0923631023, 03119884588), K.P.K, Pakistan.
Find more about Dr Sayed Qaisar Ahmed at:
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