The Potential For A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Worrisome....

Hopefully, this bug won't mutate into something as deadly as the Spanish flu. But the Spanish flu had an ally in that there was a world war going on and people were traveling all over the place into dirty deadly conditions and living unhealthy lives.

WHO researchers say between 7 million and 100 million humans worldwide could die in such an outbreak. Dr. Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, predicts it could kill at least 1.7 million Americans. Worldwide, he foresees at least 180 million deaths and possibly 300 million.
But the operative word is "could." The disease must first mutate into a strain to affect humans; flu virus mutates with ease, and it could mutate into a killer strain -- or into a relatively harmless strain. Some analysts describe Dr. Osterholm's forecasts as far-fetched, given that only 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, when medicine was relatively primitive and between 20 million and 50 million people died worldwide. About 40,000 Americans, mostly the elderly, die of flu in an average year.

I worry most about my kids.