Avian Flu Preparedness

In the spring of 2006, ABC-TV presented the movie Fatal Contact, Bird Flu in America, a fictional account of the devastating effects of a bird flu pandemic in the United States.   It followed the virus as it traveled from a market in Hong Kong and mutated into a human to human strain that quickly spread across the globe. After it was broadcast last year, hundreds of you wrote us asking questions about the program and, what our official position was on it. 

Normally, we would have dismissed Fatal Contact as just another over-the-top TV show designed to attract viewers and frighten them.  In this case, it wasn't ... because it dramatically illustrated just how bad things could become if the H5N1 strain of flu mutates into a human-to-human transmissible form.  We know that many people have chosen to ignore the government's warnings about the avian flu dismissing them as another round of Bush administration scare tactics. 

Although it is absolutely true that they are taking advantage of the situation by using it to justify the use of more restrictive laws that will strip away even more of our freedoms; the threat is very real, and even they are not safe from some of the consequences.

Others feel that this type of pandemic is impossible or, improbable. Wrong.

The fact is, pandemics like any other natural disaster are here to stay.  They come in cycles and we are long overdue for our next big crisis.

As it stands today, the general consensus of the world's leading scientists have concluded that the present strain of Avian Flu does not pose a threat to humans that are not in close contact with live poultry.