A UK newspaper is reporting that officials are preparing for massive outbreaks of the bird flu in bird populations around the world this season. It makes one wonder how far down the road a mutation is, which would enable the virus to jump from avians into humans.
The story was sparked by an outbreak in Great Britain, where some 150,000+ turkeys are in the process of being slaughtered and the farm where they were at being quarantined by British health authorities.
Nations are being encouraged to prepare for a widespread outbreak of human avian flu, which could cause major disruptions. Every time a human becomes contaminated, the chance of a mutation occurring increases substantially.
The World Organization for Animal Health is monitoring the situation globally, as well as outbreaks of other animal diseases. Their web site is pretty extensive.
The U.S. government has put together it's own web site which is quite good too. It provides links to every state's plans for dealing with an outbreak.
Michigan's plan is here (pdf format). It calls for health screenings at airports for all outbound travelers, isolating all inbound sick travelers, closing public gathering places, limiting non-essential travel and other measures, depending on the severity of an outbreak.
Scary stuff, but it's data everyone should be aware of if there is a pandemic, or a lesser type of outbreak, to prevent a panic.
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