Has anyone ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds"? Bascially, the point of the story is that if they wanted to, birds could seriously kick the ass of the human race. However, Hitchcock is fiction. The Bird Flu is definetely a reality. As you may have heard, much of the world is on alert for breakouts of the deadly bird flu virus, which has already hit three continents, and killed over 90 people. According to BBC World News, this gives the virus a 50% mortality rate. The fact that the flu, composed of a deadly strain of H5N1, is carried by birds that are migratory, it makes many other areas of the world extremely vulnerable. Also - lets not forget all the poultry being imported and exported from country to country for human consumption? Scary I know! Anyways, this is Julia here just giving all our readers an update on what the avian flu is, and where it is located - because I am certain that you'll be hearing alot about in on the news in the future. Here are some FUN facts about Bird Flu! 1) There are over 15 different types of avian (bird) flu - the most deadly contains the H5N1 strain. 2) A person gets this virus by having close contact with the infected birds - it is in their faeces, and when it drys, is released into the air, then inhaled by humans. 3)Bird flu spreads extremely fast - within one week in February, 2006, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, France, Slovenia, India, Iran, and Eygpt, confirmed their first cases of bird flu. 4) The consequences of a worldwide outbreak of the flu, would ultimately constitute in between two million and fifty million deaths.
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