I have been following the bird flu for a while and there certainly are a lot of bad signs out there which seem to be suggesting that it could be approaching soon and when it does, it is going to be very serious. Officials in the UK Civil Contingency Secretariat are saying that a flu pandemic could kill 700,000 civilians. Other international health organizations are also warning the public.
The World Health Organisation has warned that "the world is now in the gravest possible danger of a pandemic", while the Food and Agriculture Organisation calls it a "sword of Damocles" hanging over the globe.On Friday, a new report in the US suggested 500,000 could die and 2 million hospitalized when the flu pandemic arrives. Considering the sorry state of US healthcare in the US those numbers could be conservative because the US has a limited supply of vaccine, for only 2% of the population compared to Western Europe where the numbers are ten times or more.
A more serious strain strikes every few years and a so-called pandemic strain emerges once every 27 years, on average. The more virulent strains sweep around the world within months.Pandemics hit in 1918 -- killing up to 40 million people globally -- 1957 and 1968. Health experts all say the world is overdue for another and fear the avian flu in Asia may be it.
