Word: avian
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...past two years, scientists, public-health officials and even a high-ranking government official or two have warned about the potential danger of a deadly worldwide outbreak, or pandemic, of avian flu. But it took a couple of furies named Katrina and Rita to really bring home how much can go wrong if you don't plan for major emergencies...
...book on the 1918 pandemic that killed more than 50 million people worldwide and that serves as a reminder of the kind of threat that the world could face (see ESSAY). A reconstruction of the 1918 virus, reported in scientific journals last week, shows it to be an avian strain that mutated just enough to infect humans directly and easily...
Virologists named the newest strain of avian flu H5N1, after two proteins (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase) that dot the surface of the virus like spikes on a mace. Since 2003, more than 100 people have become sick enough to come to the attention of health authorities, and at least 60 of them have died. So far, the vast majority have been infected through close contact with birds; human-to-human infection is still extremely rare. What gives health authorities nightmares is the possibility that the lethal H5N1 could mutate into a virus that is easily passed among humans...
...Moves to shield the country from a human strain of avian flu have been in full swing ever since. And should they fail, how prepared is Australia to cope with an outbreak? More prepared than most countries, and about as ready as it's possible to be for a virus that could be up to 25 times more deadly than a standard flu (thus killing 2.5% of those it infects), to which no one is yet immune, and for which there's no effective treatment. The gloomiest scenario for Australia, Abbott says, is an outbreak "that would bring life...
...threat will be deemed over and people can get back to worrying about more mundane crises, "I have no idea," the CMO says. "But my colleagues in the (veterinary) world don't think this threat is going to abate in the foreseeable future." In the case of an avian-flu pandemic, it's unlikely that the waiting would be the worst part...