>>>>>>>>Here's the latest link from Vietnam
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/19746/over-50-percent-of-h5n1-patients-die.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>"This type of flue appeared in Vietnam for the first time in 2004. So far, Vietnam has had 122 patients, 50 percent of them died."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Since 2004, 122 infected and half died. This is newsworthy? Really?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That's a pretty high mortality rate - maybe not as bad as Ebola/Marburg, but still serious.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>From the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5n1
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"Due to the high lethality and virulence of HPAI A(H5N1), its endemic presence, its increasingly large host reservoir, and its significant ongoing mutations, the H5N1 virus is the world's largest current pandemic threat, and billions of dollars are being spent researching H5N1 and preparing for a potential influenza pandemic."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>It might be a high mortality rate but the infection rate quoted in the article is extremely low - 122 people over 7 years in a population of 80+ million people.
>>>>
>>>>Still, as the Wiki article points out, it's a serious threat, and IMO newsworthy for that reason alone.
>>>
>>>The sentence from Wikipedia you quote above says "high virulence" - but less than 0.00002% of a third world population get infected per annum and of those half die, possibly including from other contributing factors.I think we should be more concerned about taking that shower or getting hit by lightening at this stage :)
>>
>>I suspect that right now, people are only getting infected directly from birds. The big worry would be that the thing would mutate so that it could be passed from one person to another.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I understand, one day it turns into something else. Lots of things can happen one day. Meanwhile - http://www.newhealthbasics.com/Art/Deaths-Chart-1125x1050x6.jpg

The 1918 flu killed between 50 and 100 million people, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.[Wikipedia]. The flu is capable of doing it again. When I post flu update [no matter how insignificant is seems] it is simply a heads up regarding the disease. It is not an attempt to cause panic on the UT. It is just information. If it really bothers you, don't look at it.