It's only a matter of time before the H5N1 bird flu virus reaches the United States, say health officials. In just one winter, the H5N1 bird flu virus has migrated from Asia to Europe and Africa. Alaska's northwest coast, a major flyway for migrating birds, is considered a primary point of entry. The region has already played a major role in the effort to halt the disease. In 1918, a pandemic, sparked by bird flu virus, swept through the tiny Alaskan coastal community of Brevig Mission. Tissue samples taken more than half a century ago from a mass grave there provided a map of that virus, which is helping researchers figure out how the current H5N1 virus works.

The number of human cases of avian flu in Egypt has reached eight, as Health Minister Hatem al-Gebali announced that a further two people have been infected by the virus. The latest cases are two sisters, aged 18 months and 6 years, from the province of Kafr el-Sheikh who had come into contact with dead birds. The condition of the two young patients is described a stable, while the blood tests performed on the rest of the family members turned up negative to the bird flu virus.

In the meantime, yet another dead swan was located in the Czech Republic and as per government officials, it had been infected by avian flu. The bird was found near Ceske Budejovice, 160km south of Prague. Another five swans that were H5 carriers had been located in the same area last week. However, only one of them had been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

While scientists vexed over bird flu are still clucking their tongues, tuberculosis (TB) is making a comeback in a big way: The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned last week that there is a virtually incurable strain that may lead to a TB pandemic.

That strain probably surfaced around 2000. Here is what we now know: The TB germs in some 347 patient samples collected by WHO-affiliated laboratories worldwide from 2000 to 2004 were found to be resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, the two main TB drugs. As such, they were classified as 'multi-drug resistant' TB, a phenomenon first recognised some 15 years ago now.

The death of three humans from bird flu in Azerbaijan has sparked controversy about the government’s response to the health crisis. Some observers contend that officials are not doing all that they can to prevent the disease’s spread.

The three individuals, who died earlier this month, were from a village in the Salyan region, in the south of the country near the Caspian Sea coast. Azerbaijan’s Lung Disease Research Institute, where the three were treated, maintains that contact with birds carrying avian flu caused the trio’s illness. The Institute does not believe that the virus passed from human to human.

MUMBAI- Health workers went door-to-door looking for people with bird flu symptoms in western India on Wednesday, while the virus killed a dog in the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan.

Denmark became the latest European country to report a case of highly pathogenic bird flu in wild fowl, although it has yet to confirm it is the feared H5N1 strain that has killed around 100 people in Asia and the Middle East.

Neighbouring Sweden said on Wednesday that tests had identified H5N1 in two wild ducks found on its east coast, confirming its first outbreak.

Robert G. Webster is one of the few bird flu experts confident enough to answer the key question: Will the avian flu switch from posing a terrible hazard to birds to becoming a real threat to humans?

There are "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," he told ABC's "World News Tonight." Webster, the Rosemary Thomas Chair at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., is credited as the first scientist to find the link between human flu and bird flu.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan authorities said Wednesday that preliminary test results from a U.N. lab make them ``99 percent certain'' that the country's first bird flu outbreak is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Further tests at the lab in Rome in the next 24 hours are expected to confirm the outbreak, said Mustafa Zahir, the director of the government's environment department.

Probably the best article I've come across.

The author talks about migratory flight patterns, estimated arrival times to North America, and even gives some alternative ideas to governments instead of just waiting around for the pandemic to hit and then reacting to it (by stocking Tamilflu - come on really).

BEIJING, - China has warned of possible widespread outbreaks of avian influenza during the coming spring bird migratory season, as the health ministry announced two more human cases of the virus.

"At present we cannot rule out the possibility of widespread outbreaks of the bird flu in China," the Xinhua news agency on Sunday quoted Agricultural Minister Du Qinglin as saying at a parliamentary meeting.

"We must remain on a high-level alert in all areas and continue to earnestly step up prevention and control work." Du's remarks on Saturday came as the health ministry reported that a nine-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman in eastern China had contracted bird flu and were both in critical condition.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, which confirmed on Saturday, February 25, its 20th bird flu human fatality, is championing a high-profile door-to-door checks campaign of poultry and birds in an effort to curb the fatal disease.

A wild duck and a swan found dead near the Polish border have tested positive for bird flu, marking the apparent spread of the H5N1 virus into a fourth state in Europe's biggest economy, officials said on Saturday.

LACK of funding and expertise in Indonesia is increasing the risk of bird flu evolving into a global human pandemic, an Australian expert on the virus has said. Andrew Jeremijenko says there is data to show the H5N1 virus, which has been killing humans in Indonesia, is different from the one that is killing birds.

"So far the investigations have been unable to match the viruses," he told the ABC yesterday. "They don't seem to be able to match the viruses from the human case to the animal case. And that is putting the world at threat.

"Every human case is another potential mutation that could turn this virus into a pandemic virus."

VIENNA: The deadly H5N1 form of bird flu was detected in poultry in the European Union for the first time, infecting two chickens in Austria, as the virus threatened to run rampant despite worldwide efforts to confine it.

India's health secretary yesterday suggested that humans were infected with bird flu on the sub-continent, as Nigeria battled to contain Africa's first outbreak of the virus, and the European Commission approved French and Dutch plans to vaccinate millions of their domestic fowl.

SYDNEY - Birds from neighbouring Indonesia have most likely brought avian flu to Australia's sparsely populated northern shores, but it is yet to be detected, two of the nation's top scientists said on Thursday.

"There is no magic curtain between Indonesia and Australia, and given the expanse of our land it would not be surprising if it was here," said Professor Mark von Itzstein from Griffith University in the state of Queensland.

CAIRO, Egypt - Tests confirmed the deadly strain of bird flu in Egypt, as France reported a probable first case Friday and the United Nations expressed growing concern about the virus' spread through West Africa.

Egypt reported Friday that 18-20 dead birds had tested positive for bird flu. A U.N. official said tests confirmed an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain that has swept out of Southeast Asia into Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Egypt's health ministry was preparing to declare a state of emergency, the government said.

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN)As many as 142 million people around the world could die if bird flu turns into a "worst case" influenza pandemic, according to a sobering new study of its possible consequences.

And global economic losses could run to $4.4 trillion -- the equivalent of wiping out the Japanese economy's annual output.

The study, prepared for the Sydney, Australia-based Lowy Institute think tank, says there are "enormous uncertainties" about whether a flu pandemic might happen, and where and when it might happen first.

But it says even a mild pandemic could kill 1.4 million people and cost $330 billion.

In its "ultra" or worst-case scenario, Hong Kong's economy is halved, the large-scale collapse of Asian economic activity causes global trade flows to dry up, and money flows out to safe havens in North America and Europe. Deaths could top 28 million in China and 24 million in India.

Iran became the latest country to confirm cases of H5N1 bird flu on Tuesday after wild swans tested positive for the deadly virus that had already hit neighboring countries and killed 91 people worldwide. Experts had said it was only a matter of time before H5N1 broke out in Iran, a wintering place for wild fowl who may be carriers. Its neighbors Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkey had already reported outbreaks.

"International laboratory results confirm that some wild swans died from bird flu," a statement from Iran's veterinary organization said.

Tested samples came from some wild swans in a flock of 135 found dead in wetlands near the Caspian Sea port of Bandar-e Anzali on Iran's northern coast. The Azeri outbreak reported last week was in birds in the Caspian Sea. The virus has killed at least 91 people in Asia and the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization. The figure includes four deaths in Turkey and one in Iraq.

Experts fear H5N1 may mutate into a form that can spread between people and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.

They are trying to warn people of the dangers of the virus that is contracted through direct contact with infected birds, but are struggling in countries such as Nigeria where people think nothing of touching dead poultry with their bare hands.

Preliminary tests on dead swans found in Austria and Germany have been positive for the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus.

In both countries, agricultural officials ordered all domestic poultry kept undercover in areas around the places where the swans were found.

The dead swans in Germany were on the island of Rugen in the Baltic near the Polish border, the Independent said. The Austrian swans and other dead birds were found in Mellach, near Graz, the BBC reported.

The H5N1 virus, which has killed almost 100 people since it was first identified in Southeast Asia, has recently been found in the eastern Mediterranean and Nigeria. European officials fear that the spring migration will lead to widespread infections among wild and domestic birds across the continent.

THE H5 bird flu virus has been detected in a swan in EU member Slovenia, EU officials said today.

"The Slovenian authorities today informed the European Commission of a confirmed case of avian influenza virus H5 in a swan," a statement issued by the EU's executive branch.

Italy, Greece and Bulgaria have confirmed their first cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

In Italy, the virus was found in swans in the regions of Puglia and Calabria and Sicily.

Health Minister Francesco Storace would brief the cabinet on developments later on Saturday.

In Greece the strain was also found in swans in the north of the country.

Meanwhile, the European Union has confirmed bird flu found in wild swans in Bulgaria was caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

BAKU (Reuters) - Avian flu was blamed for deaths in Indonesia and China on Friday and spread to a new country after Azerbaijan found the lethal H5N1 strain in wild birds floating dead on the Caspian Sea.

Authorities in Nigeria have reported new cases of a deadly bird flu virus, quarantining bird farms throughout the north as neighbouring countries banned poultry imports to halt the fatal disease strain's first reported march into Africa.

The presence of the H5N1 bird flu strain in two more Nigerian states will complicate efforts to contain it and has raised fears it may be spreading undetected elsewhere on an impoverished continent

THESSALONIKI, Greece -- Agriculture Minister Evangelos Basiakos announced on Thursday (9 February) that three dead swans found in northern Greece have tested positive for bird flu. Samples are being tested to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain. Authorities say all regions where suspected bird flu cases have been spotted are being quarantined, with strict inspections conducted daily. he memorandum of understanding struck between France's Institut Pasteur and the US Department of Health and Human Services said they "agreed to carry out joint activities, beginning in Southeast Asia, to strengthen global capacity to detect influenza viruses that could have the potential to trigger a human pandemic."

(CNN) -- No country is fully prepared for bird flu, which is much more genetically diverse than previously thought, according to a global team of researchers.

One of the bird flu experts, Dr. Malik Peiris, professor of microbiology at Hong Kong University, told CNN Wednesday the deadly disease deserved all the attention it was getting.

Bird flu has claimed at least 86 lives around the world since 2003 and is the major concern this year of Asian populations, according to a December 2005 CNN/TIME survey.

(AFP) - France and the United States are to join forces to detect early outbreaks of bird flu under an agreement signed in Paris on Monday, officials from both countries said in a joint statement.

The memorandum of understanding struck between France's Institut Pasteur and the US Department of Health and Human Services said they "agreed to carry out joint activities, beginning in Southeast Asia, to strengthen global capacity to detect influenza viruses that could have the potential to trigger a human pandemic."

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Authorities closed access to wetland areas Monday (6 February) and started testing dozens of birds found dead at the weekend. Police have begun guarding the lakes of Shabla and Durankulak in the northeast to prevent people from coming into contact with wild birds that spend the winter there. Hundreds of birds have died there since early January but veterinarians have so far attributed the deaths to the bitter cold.

Yakarta, Feb 6 (Prensa Latina) Indonesia authorities informed an 18 year-old woman has died from flu bird after positive tests from a local lab.

The Hong Kong lab is member of the world health organization (OMS), and media stated that the woman might have be in contact with infected birds. The woman died in Hassan Sadikin de Bandung Hospital, Java west province.

A 14-year-old girl who died in northern Iraq this month had bird flu, Iraq's health minister said on Monday, despite the World Health Organisation having initially discounted the virus as the cause of death.

A WHO official said preliminary results from a U.S. military laboratory in Cairo showed the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, but it was urgently seeking further tests at a British laboratory.

"In Iraq the authorities will move as if it is confirmed ... A mission from the WHO will travel to Iraq to assess the situation," said Zuhair Halaj, head of communicable diseases at the WHO office in Cairo.

The European Union confirmed yesterday the first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu being found in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus, forcing Nicosia to step up protective measures against the disease.

The H5N1 strain was detected in one of two chickens which were diagnosed with the broader H5 bird flu on Thursday, said Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for the European Commission.

The confirmation is the latest sign that the virus, so far mostly found in Asia, is spreading westward to the edges of Europe.

The 10th person in China to contract the H5N1 bird flu has become the seventh person there to die from it. The state news agency, Xinhua, reports the Ministry of Health has confirmed a 29-year-old woman from southwestern Sichuan Province died after being hospitalized Jan. 12.

Also CNN has a good info page.

Asian countries have lagged in reporting some human cases of bird flu and this could jeopardize the chances of swiftly containing any potential pandemic, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Tuesday.

VAN, Turkey (AFP) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has said bird flu infection rates in Turkey should soon start to decline as masses of birds are slaughtered and people heed government warnings.

A total of 21 people have been confirmed to have contracted the potentially lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turkey, including four teenagers who have died since January 1 in the worst-hit area in the east, the first victims of the virus outside east Asia

The Turkey outbreak is unusual, because of the large family clusters of cases; the fact that many of those infected have only mild symptoms; and the speed with which infections have arisen — twenty cases, including four deaths, in less than two weeks. So scientists are urgently trying to establish whether the virus is behaving differently in this outbreak from previous ones in Asia. In particular, international teams are investigating the possibility that the virus is moving between people.

"With such a large number of cases within such a short period of time, human-to-human transmission is something that we've had to consider," says Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman at World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva.

Source article can be found at Nature - International Weekly Journal of Science.

As their article states with the doctor interviewed;
Anxiety about avian flu is spreading far faster than the disease. Watch enough reports on television about the outbreaks in Turkey, and you could worry yourself sick. In my opinion, the anxiety is unfounded.

At the moment, the H5N1 influenza virus is mainly a threat to birds. The virus can infect and kill other animals but only if they have close contact with infected birds. The big concern is that it will gain the ability to pass easily from person to person, possibly by exchanging genes with an ordinary flu virus in the body of some unlucky person infected with both. That has not happened yet, and until it does, there can be no pandemic.

A great link to get more information is here at the Emergency Preparedness Week website.

What you should really be informed about right now is the Avian flu H5N1 strain as stated on the WHO website;

Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three pandemics occurred. WHO uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat and of the need to launch progressively more intense preparedness activities.

Each phase of alert coincides with a series of recommended activities to be undertaken by WHO, the international community, governments, and industry. Changes from one phase to another are triggered by several factors, which include the epidemiological behaviour of the disease and the characteristics of circulating viruses.

The world is presently in phase 3: a new influenza virus subtype is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainably among humans.

A personal pandemic plan put out by the Center for Disease Control is available for download and printing by clicking here.

Another great website is the CBC Black Dawn site.

The WHO predicts that in the best case scenario, between two and 7.4 million people could die if H5N1 acquires the ability to spread from person to person easily. In the worst case scenario as many as 150 million people could die.

The H5N1 strain made the first known jump to humans during an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, which caused the death or destruction of 1.5 million birds. Eighteen people became sick and six died. It re-emerged in South Korea in 2003.

By mid-October 2005 it had been found in birds in Cambodia, China, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Birds that survive infection with H5N1 excrete the virus for at least 10 days, orally and in faeces, making it highly likely to spread. Migratory birds, usually wild ducks, are the natural "reservoir" of avian influenza viruses, and usually do not become sick when infected. Domestic poultry, including chickens and turkeys, die quickly when infected.

H5 is already in Canada (not the deadly H5N1) as seen from this 2004 article;

Mass cull ordered to halt bird flu in B.C. Updated Mon. Apr. 5 2004 11:17 PM ET

Up to 19 million chickens and turkeys in B.C.'s Fraser Valley are going to be culled in a bid to stamp out the continuing spread of avian flu, Agriculture Minister Bob Speller has announced.

"We are dealing with a serious and highly contagious disease in birds and it is becoming clear that the rapid spread of the virus requires much more aggressive action to minimize its additional spread," Speller told a news conference Monday.