*sniffle*

[jrittenhouse]

The Avian Flu is just another element in a chain of a long line of new diseases that get moved over to humans as the humans dig deeper and farther into the wild; Ebola, AIDS and various haemorragic fevers for starters.  Good article here on this.

Comments

[hakeber]

Avian flu has rampaged across humanity before. It just doesn't do it very often. Keep in mind the one we keep seeing is the one mostly from chickens, and we've been living with chickens in our yards for millenia. Most recent big pandemic would have been early last century, and as I recall even the conservative estimates were in the millions dead.

[jrittenhouse]

True on all accounts. But we're a lot more numerous, we're a lot more interdependent and a lot more interconnected (to spread things around).