The Looming Pandemic: Bird Flu Takes Flight
Bird Flu Takes Flight
By ALAN FARAGO
As the latest Atlantic hurricane spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, 90 miles to the north, roadways were empty. A little rain fell on a city closed tighter than a drum.
The lucky people of Miami retreated behind walls from fitful gusts of wind, but if the next disaster is pandemic flu there will be no lucky people and nowhere to hide.
The rampant spread through bird populations in Southeast Asia of a killer strain of avian influenza called H5N1 is eerily similar to the gathering of clouds where warm ocean waters and prevailing winds fuel typhoons and hurricanes.
When H5N1 infects humans, it is extraordinarily lethal. Were a similarly lethal strain of virus to become easily transmittable among humans, the resultant flu pandemic would be catastrophic.
LINK to full story
By ALAN FARAGO
As the latest Atlantic hurricane spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, 90 miles to the north, roadways were empty. A little rain fell on a city closed tighter than a drum.
The lucky people of Miami retreated behind walls from fitful gusts of wind, but if the next disaster is pandemic flu there will be no lucky people and nowhere to hide.
The rampant spread through bird populations in Southeast Asia of a killer strain of avian influenza called H5N1 is eerily similar to the gathering of clouds where warm ocean waters and prevailing winds fuel typhoons and hurricanes.
When H5N1 infects humans, it is extraordinarily lethal. Were a similarly lethal strain of virus to become easily transmittable among humans, the resultant flu pandemic would be catastrophic.
LINK to full story
posted by ... at 9:55 AM
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