Why Are People Worried About Bird Flu Being Passed From Person To Person?

At the moment, the virus that causes bird flu is being passed from bird to bird and from birds to humans, in fairly rare cases. As of September 2006, there has been no documented case of the virus that causes bird flu being passed directly from one human being to another.

If this happens, it would show that the virus had mutated and change and had become able to pass among people. A very rapid spread of the disease would then be likely and, because the flu that this virus causes is very serious, people are worried that a worldwide pandemic of flu would follow, killing possibly millions of people.

The people who have got bird flu from either wild or domestic birds have suffered a very severe form of flu and many of them have died. Scientists think that this trend would be the same and a pandemic would result in a very high mortality rate.

Countries are preparing by trying to stockpile anti-viral drugs and plan for disaster but only time will tell whether the virus will mutate and what the results will be.

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