Director of the Institute of Influenza of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Oleg Kiselyov, predicts the emergence of a pandemic (global epidemic) of "bird flu" in two years.
"The pandemic will happen, and it will happen in two years," he told journalists on Wednesday during a scientific conference at the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
At the same time, he noted that the virus strain that circulated in Russia this year - H5N1 - "most likely does not cause illness among the population" and will not lead to an epidemic.
"I can state the following: H5N1 most likely will not be globally dangerous to humans," he said.
According to him, this strain may become dangerous when "it becomes humanized," that is, mutates.
However, according to him, there is a danger for people directly engaged in poultry farming and for other groups of occupational risk - journalists, scientists, etc.
In his opinion, in addition to vaccination against "bird flu," one must not forget about chemical preparations such as arbidol, interferon, rimantadine, which are capable of suppressing the virus in the body.