History & origin of cigarette smoking:

Since time immemorial man has been indulged in harnessing different types & varieties of plants & weeds for their medicinal and intoxicative properties as well as their social values. Whether it may be smoking, chewing or applying on in one way or the other the use has been promoted by social or religious rituals through out the four corners of the globe. Cigarette smoking in modern times has its roots to the use of one of such plants the tobacco, which is acclaimed to be the most widely recognized social habit of man since historical tomes. Its origin was traced out & related with the Native Americans of the eastern part of North America. This was widely dispersed in the European countries and the whole of Africa when the quest began between England and France to colonize the Americas during the later half of the 16th century. Later the cigarette made its first appearance in the first quarter of the 18th century in Spain and became very common to the rest of Europe because of its cheap cost and its easy mechanical manufacture.

Cigarette smoking & its impact upon health:

The trend & styles in smoking has under gone an enormous change with time since it first originated in Spain in the late 1820’s. Indeed it has traveled a long distance since its use among the tribes of North America as a sacred part of their religion was practiced communally once in a month because of their belief that it carried their prayers to heaven. Today although it is glamorized and glorified in the western society and the rest of the world as well, a handsome due is paid for the ill effects & negative impacts it causes on human health. The main health risks in cigarette primarily accounts for the presence of nicotine, an intoxicative agent. Researches and studies reveal that it acts as the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide. Diseases of the heart, respiratory tract, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and cancers of the lungs, tongue and the larynx are some of the common diseases that may pertain due to smoking of cigarettes. It has also been observed that it is one of the prime causes of infant mortality due to smoking during pregnancy.

Bird flu: a brief outlook

Nowadays bird flu has become a important and the most dreaded disease in the world .Recently it created havoc in the Asian countries and causes the death of million of poultry stocks as well as in some countries people are also affected who was very close to birds and other poultry stocks. Avian flu is a type of influenza virus which can easily affect the birds and cause serious complication as wild birds appear to be the natural reservoir of these virus. All the viruses affecting the birds are not highly pathogenic and some causes only mild symptoms. But some are highly pathogenic and may cause serious complication and further it may also affect the human.

Causes of avian bird flu

Avian bird flu is the most dreaded disease in birds and it is mostly caused by type a strains of influenza virus.16 HA haemagluttinin and 9 NA neuraminidase subtypes of influenza virus are found to affect wild waterfowl which act as reservoir of the avian influenza virus and can infect the birds’ population worldwide. Migratory birds also play major role in spreading avian bird flu into different countries. During the migratory season the wild birds migrate from their country of origin and in most cases it is examined and found that they carry non pathogenic influenza virus which get transmitted to the other birds including the chicken and become highly pathogenic and thus causes serious complication including spreading into the human body.

Avian bird flu: A serious threat to human body

The influenza virus causing avian bird flu is considered to be highly species specific and hardly infect any other species. Only few cases of human infected by avian bird flu was registered but slowly and gradually due to various genetic modification human getting infected by avian flu is on rise. H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, H9N2 are the strains of influenza virus which is considered responsible for human infection. Among these H5N1is considered to be the most lethal and has caused death of maximum number of human beings .this strains infect the human body by undergoing various types of genetic mutation with subsequent infection. Mostly human beings in Asian countries are infected by this disease. The Asian countries include china, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia.

There are many an Asian countries that was affected by the avian flu. We often call the avian flu as bird flu. This bird flu’s has totally affected a number of poultry stocks. In many of these countries, a small number of people have contracted the avian flu virus from the chickens. Many of the Scientists are concerned by seeing the whole scenario. This is because it is feared that the avian flu virus could merge with a human flu virus. The result of this merging, as thought by the scientist, might result in a new, highly infectious and speedily fatal flu virus. Such a new virus would be transmitted swiftly from person to person with potentially devastating results. To keep this outbreak of avian flu virus under control, many of the Asian countries are culling their poultry stocks to protect further spread of the virus.

What is avian flu?

Avian flu basically is used to describe as the influenza viruses that infect birds. These birds may be those of wild birds like that of ducks and domestic birds like that of chickens. In reality these birds appear to a natural reservoir of flu viruses like that of 15 sub-types influenza A virus. These viruses are also known as circulation in bird populations. There are many forms of avian flu virus that cause mild symptoms in the birds or else no symptoms at all. However there are some of the viruses that produce a highly contagious and swiftly fatal disease that leads to serious epidemics. These virulent viruses are often known as highly pathogenic avian influenza. These viruses also cause a particular concern. One such avian flu is has nowadays infected many a chickens in Asia.

Symptoms and prevention

To avoid the avian flu to be transmitted into a human and thus merge into a human flu many an Asian governments have started to cull the affected poultry stocks. Though it is not sure that whether by removing all these poultry stocks this spread of the flu will go or not but they are trying at least to stop the spreading of the flu in all the countries’ chicken populations. It is hoped that the virus that is contained in this flu would be removed from the circulation through these projects. There are many a symptoms of the bird flu. If the person is affected with the bird flu he’ll show the symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and conjunctivitis. There are many a cases of bird that more likely cause the breathing problems and pneumonia, and can be fatal.