Bird flu is coming! Bird flu is coming!
Health officials are concerned though that the H5N1 virus could one day mutate into a form that could be spread between humans through coughs and sneezes through the air.
This could, they fear, result in a lethal pandemic that could spread rapidly across the world killing tens of millions of people.
It is only now that a study has confirmed that the emergence of such a deadly virus is theoretically possible.
over 300 people have died of bird flu, but all cases were bird to human transmission, either from eating sick birds or by caring for sick chickens (which is why Jakarta banned keeping chickens inside city limits).
and I always annoy the green sites that promote city chicken raising about this danger...they protest: But I take care of my birds, they run free which is safer for them and they don't need those antibiotics etc. of farm raised chickens. But chickens catch the birdflu from visitors who eat their feed, and migrating birds mean that closing the borders may or may not help...
Heh. Sounds familiar:
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