Bird Flu

I haven't been concerned until recently. I researched a little. Looks like chicken soup isn't going to do it.

Here's what I found:

• There's a deadly flu passing around the bird population in Asia right now.
  
• It's caused by a virus, The H5N1 virus.
  
• It can pass from bird to bird, and from bird to human, but not yet from human to human.
  
• The moment it mutates to a form that can spread from human to human, it could infect a global population within a week.
  
• It has killed 55% of the people it has infected so far.¹
  
• That makes it the most lethal flu in the history of man.
  
• It infects lower respiratory tissue causing severe pneumonia. (Normal flu infects upper respiratory tract.)
  
• There is no vaccine.²
  
• Humans have no natural immunity to it.
  
• Antibiotics are useless against virus-caused flu.
  
• It will take at least 6 months after it's detected to develop a vaccine.
  
• Any new vaccine will be limited, not widely available.
  
• Our government plans to contain it through quarantine.
  
• The government's emergency plan predicts 200,000 deaths in first few months.³

~~~~~~¹ The most recent, yesterday.
² There's an experimental vaccine based on an older strain of H5N1. It may or may not be effective against a new mutated strain.
³ A death projection is difficult. No one knows how lethal the new mutated virus will be.

Links:
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (Minnesota)
World Health Organization - Avian Flu