Officials in at least two nations now suspect the avian flu bug has mutated into a virus that is being transmitted from human to human – a development world health authorities have estimated could result in the deaths of tens of millions.
[. . .]
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the disease is spreading so rapidly, particularly in the capital of Jakarta, some health officials strongly suspect the long-dreaded mutation has already occurred.
"There are just too many people who have it," said one doctor. "In many cases, it is difficult to establish any contact with birds."
2 comments:
It's hard to separate the reality from the mix of urban myth and panic-mongering that seems to infect mass media accounts of bird flu. This story, like most I've read on the subject, seems to lean heavily on the "millions of deaths" motif and be somewhat scanty on facts apart from the one that avian flu seems to infect, well, a lot of birds. I take the warnings seriously enough to do what I can to prepare without necessarily taking all these panic-mongering stories at face value. If/when millions of people DO start dying of this viral strain, maybe I'll consider emigrating to, I don't know, upstate New York?
I'm skeptical of this article as well. I want to see figures.
Having said that, I think a human-to-human mutation is practically inevitable. And I bet it's already happened, or will happen in the extremely near future. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.