Avian Flu

The pandemic flu stories give me the willies and fascinate me simultaneously. My grandmother, at age 17, lost her entire immediate family in a tragic fire and then the flu pandemic in 1918 and so I've always had an awareness and awe of that pandemic. It seems so strange how it could come so suddenly and end so suddenly as well.

So here's today's scary story:

Half a million Americans could die and more than 2 million could end up in the hospital with serious complications if an even moderately severe strain of a pandemic flu hits, a report predicted on Friday.

But the United States only has 965,256 staffed hospital beds, said the report from the Trust for America's Health.

The non-profit group's state-by-state analysis adds to a growing clamor of voices contending that the United States is not prepared for a large outbreak of disease, whether natural or brought on by war or terrorism.

"This is not a drill. This is not a planning exercise. This is for real," said the Trust's executive director, Shelley Hearne, in a statement.

In today's amazing world of blogging, there's a blog that's solely devoted to avian flu. Read it for more information and links to other sources. Some of the sources linked to on that blog suggest that the human-to-human transmission of the avian flu has already begun in Vietnam and perhaps China.