Impossible to answer definitively, and easy to answer definitively. Avian flu has been around forever. This particular strain since 2003.
And, there are a number of strains out there. The virus is evolving.
Right now it doesn't seem to be able to live away from birds, and people get it from birds, feathers or feces. HOWEVER, if it get's into enough people it WILL evolve into something which can be transmitted from person to person and probably into something which can live outside the human body.
No one knows how virulent that would be. If it's really nasty, then there would be problems. In a worst case, Katrina-type, scenario it could overwhelm the health system, as lotsa people and lotsa health workers got it.
The real problem now is to keep it out of people and reduce the chances of it's mutating into something more fierce and transmissible. Every time a person is infected the odds of that happening are increased.
It's not the devil we know, it's the devil we don't know that's the problem.
Arf
Current Events » in reply to I've got a question...
Good question.
The whole thread (48 posts)
- 142 million deaths possible from bird flu
- I've got a question...
- Possible BEFORE modern medicine. Not any longer.
- Comments
- Influenza pandemics
- I already got the flu shot -- they should have included bird flu if it were so serious
- Scarier than an asteroid hitting the Earth!
- Color me skeptical.
- I will bet you that more people die of measles than bird flu in '06. (n/t)