There is a good post about bird flu by Ayu up at Blogcritics, and I though I'd add some information to educate readers about bird flu.

A primary fear is that should bird flu successfully mutate to a pathogen transmitted from human to human, an influenza pandemic may result. Most people are aware of the most famous of flu pandemics, the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which "caused the highest number of known flu deaths: more than 500,000 people died in the United States, and 20 million to 50 million people may have died worldwide. Many people died within the first few days after infection and others died of complications soon after. Nearly half of those who died were young, healthy adults."

Influenza viruses are found in pigs, ducks, horses, whales, seals, and other birds. However, "certain subtypes of influenza A virus are specific to certain species, except for birds which are hosts to all subtypes of influenza A. Subtypes that have caused widespread illness in people either in the past or the current period are H3N2, H2N2, H1N1, and H1N2. H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes have caused outbreaks in pigs and H7N7 and H3N8 viruses have caused outbreaks in horses."

According to one news report, the CDC says "there is a high chance that the avian flu will mutate into a form than can transfer from human to human. It is currently the right season for the flu virus to spread in Asia, so the CDC expects to see more cases in the next few weeks. Although few deaths have been reported so far, it is very likely that the numbers will increase." The symptoms of avian influenza in humans includes "typical influenza-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches) to eye infections (conjunctivitis), pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, and other severe and life-threatening complications." Influenza drugs such as amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir, and zanamivir have worked, but influenza strains may become resistant to drug treatment so these drugs may not always be effective.

The CDC's web site describes transmission of influenza from birds to humans in this manner:

Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans are thought to have resulted from contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces. However, there is still a lot to learn about how different subtypes and strains of avian influenza virus might affect humans. For example, it is not known how the distinction between low pathogenic and highly pathogenic strains might impact the health risk to humans. Of the documented cases of human infection with avian influenza viruses, illnesses caused by highly pathogenic viruses appear to be more severe.

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