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We recently wrote about the race to stop bird flu before it mutates, making it possible to be passed between humans. Now it looks as if that race has been lost, since two sisters who died of bird flu in Vietnam probably caught it from their brother. In earlier cases, it was only caught through direct contact with infected chickens. A medical advisor to Hong Kong’s Department of Health says, “If it is found that bird flu can be passed from person to person, 300,000 people could die in Hong Kong alone.”

In excitenews.com, Tini Tran quotes Bob Dietz, of the World Health Organization, as saying, “?WHO considers that limited human-to-human transmission from the brother to his sisters is one possible explanation.”
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In Vietnam and Thailand, authorities are trying desperately to stop bird flu from spreading, before the virus becomes able to be passed from person to person and causes an epidemic much larger than SARS. Right now, it can only be caught directly from infected chickens. “If the virus continues to spread in chickens, it may adapt itself so it can grow in humans,” says epidemiologist Arnold Monto. “If it is transmitted human to human, then we are concerned this is the start of the great pandemic.”
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The Western U.S. is being particularly hard hit by the flu this season. Colorado has reported 6,306 cases, more than in the last two seasons put together, and at least 5 children there have died from it. Texas was the first state to report heavy flu activity and has had 4 flu-related deaths. New Mexico has run out of serum for flu shots and Nevada and Utah report many cases as well.

“Obviously, the number exceeds (the norm), and the season is not over,” says Dr. Ken Gershman of the Colorado Department of Public Health. The 300,000 doses of flu vaccine that were originally available in New Mexico have been used up already and the state is trying to buy more. Gary Simpson, of the New Mexico Infectious Disease Bureau says, “As a state, we’re almost out of vaccine.”
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The Spanish Flu killed 20-40 million people in 1918. Now U.S. scientists have isolated several genes of this lethal flu virus and introduced them into modern flu strains. This newly-engineered virus killed the mice it was given to, while current flu viruses had little effect on them. If the Spanish Flu is recreated, it can be abused, just as anthrax was when it was sent through the mail.
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