In Reply to: bird flu posted by surferboy on Wednesday, 28. September 2005 at 06:31 Bali Time:
As things stand, less than 100 people in Asia have died from bird flu, and there's been around 700 cases of human infection.
In Indonesia, six people have died and about 45 have been infected, mostly in and around Jakarta.
So six deaths out of 230 million Indonesians. Less than 100 out of nearly 3 billion Asians. All of the cases came from direct and prolonged contact with infected birds.
At this stage, bird flu does not really pose a threat to the health of anyone who doesn't normally come into contact with birds or some other animals that have now caught it, like pigs. You get it from the poo, and you could get it from the saliva (but you'd never admit it).
That's not to say that bird flu isn't a big problem. It is. But it's a big problem because of the huge potential of this disease to affect everyone in the world in the future, as it spreads to every continent killing poultry (mainly) and possibly mutates into a virus that can be passed from human to human.
So don't eat chicken poo and you'll be okay. There's no preventative vaccine anyway.
The thing about all the press bird flu gets is that it takes people's attention away from more immediate threats like hepatitis, malaria, dengue, typhoid, etc. All of which afflict millions of people every year. All of which you need to be aware of so that you can take simple precautions and greatly reduce your risk of getting sick.