Avian flu as a workplace health risk

Avian influenza - or avian flu, or simply bird flu - is a bird disease caused by a strain of the influenza virus and it can be transferred to humans through contact with bird droppings and respiratory secretions.

The virus is thought to spread through wild migrating birds to domestic birds, where human contact becomes possible and it may become a workplace health risk. Poultry farms raising free-range chickens, where the birds are not sheltered, appear to be the workplaces most at risk.

Although millions of birds have been infected in recent outbreaks of the flu in Vietnam and Thailand in particular, by comparison only very few humans have caught the disease.

According to a fact sheet issued by Comcare in February, Australian travellers to South East Asia are advised to avoid farms and markets where they may come in contact with live domestic birds. Avoiding uncooked chicken meat and eggs and washing hands and surfaces after contact with raw meat and eggs are also obvious precautionary measures.