Patchy pig monitoring may hide flu threat

[Bird flu: a real or imaginary threat?].

Hong Kong flu still poses pandemic threat.

WASHINGTON—In December 1997, news watchers were confronted with sobering images of government workers in Hong Kong slaughtering 1.4 million chickens in a massive effort to prevent avian influenza from spreading through the densely populated city and, potentially, across the globe. Earlier that year, what was later identified as a strain of influenza previously known to infect birds, but not peo...

Alarm bells ring over bird flu threat

Recent cases of bird flu infecting humans in southeast Asia have raised fears about the possibility of a new strain of human flu that could spark a pandemic. The new outbreaks of the influenza virus (strain H5N1) in poultry in Asia were linked by sporadic reporting of human cases of infection with this virus in Vietnam and Thailand last year. By the end of last month, there had been 54 cases of...

Repeated flu shots may blunt effectiveness.

The Bird Flu Threat - Why Aren't We Worrying?

The World Health Organization (WHO) and influenza experts worldwide are concerned that the recent appearance and widespread distribution of an avian influenza virus, influenza A/H5N1, has the potential to ignite the next influenza pandemic. It is estimated that even in the best-case scenarios, the pandemic will cause 2 to 7 million human death and tens of millions would require medical attentio...