South Korea H5N8

For more on the the threat of avian influenza expanding across the country and ways to contain the potential damage from the virus, we are joined in the studio by Dr. Seo Sang-heui professor of Veterinary Medicine at Chungnam National University. 
Thank you for joining us. 

Good to be here. 

1. There were fears that the spread of the bird flu virus would reach its peak during the Lunar New Year holiday at a time when about two-thirds of 50 million Koreans travel across the country. How critical is the current situation? 

2. How bad might this get? And do you expect the spread to continue for a while? 

3. Health authorities have yet to identify the exact cause of the outbreak, but they presume migratory birds are the main culprits. What role have they played in this problem?

4. Avian influenza has hit Korea four times since 2003 yet we have failed over and over again to stop the virus from spreading across the nation. Are there shortcomings in the government's preventive measures against the epidemic or is there more to it than that?

5. They say unlike a few other strains of bird flu the H5-N8 strain poses no immediate threat to people. How concerned should people be of human infections and even eating poultry? 

Keywords

• Avian influenza virus; 
• H5N5; 
• H5N8; 
• Reassortant