is "bird flu" another media hype????

[IamOne]

What makes bird flu any different from any other flu. It seems to be affecting the weak young and infirm as all flu viruses. We had a nasty virus in the house over the new year period that wiped my family from daily life and all had different symptoms. It made me sleep.:D

Every year there is something new to panic people and worry us. Do we stop feeding pigeons and ducks in the parks in case.
One local lad whose training to be a gamekeeper has been told he might not have a job before too long. If the trading of birds is stopped they will not be able to buy in baby partridges and he will be unemployed.
There is not much info in the UK and certainly no one has been told not to go to Turkey on holiday (as far as i know )
Interesting to hear views

[degsy]

The fact that it is killing people may be a pretty major fact to the hype

[IamOne]

It's eight years since the first case of H5N1 was seen, and it still hasn't progressed to human-human infection. So until it does......common sense will prevail .

[Pi rules]

It is a potential danger, but I think that the media is pushing it a little too far. There was a nice segment on NOVA ScienceNow last night with some useful information (link here (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3302/04.html) with FAQs and a 6-minute film segment).

[Ned Seagoon]

No it is not hype, this sort of flu in birds is capable of jumping the barrier into humans, this has happened in the past and the most famous of these was the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic where many people died world wide.

Take a look here (http://www.ninthday.com/spanish_flu.htm) for a little data on this. Remember in 1918 travel was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today, should this present bird flu go the same way as the 1918 flu, millions will die, and commerce and industry will be paralysed.

Let's hope this doesn't happen.