Bird flu has taken down yet another victim. Actually, 700,000 victims. Officials in India have begun a mass slaughter of chickens, and have been furiously destroying birds and eggs. Although it’s still difficult to catch the H5N1 bird flu virus (there have so far been about 93 human victims), and it currently travels only from bird to bird, and bird to human, health experts and scientists fear that a mutation could quickly turn the virus into a pandemic killer that jumps from human to human through sneezes and doorknobs.

Many animals suffer from the flu, but viruses usually evolve along with one particular species, and travel within it. The human immune system develops resistance to common human flu strains after occasional exposure to small amounts and from vaccines. Healthy humans are generally well equipped to fight off known human strains. When a human body encounters an unfamiliar avian virus, his or her immune system starts to fight it and the virus quickly mutates and evolves in order to survive. So far, the virus that humans have been getting from birds is like an intense flu, with a 50% death rate. The next jump—a strain that could travel airborne from human to human—may have even more lethal effects. Because of our close contact with birds, especially tasty ones, birds with the flu are flapping, chirping time bombs.

The enormously destructive 1918 Spanish Flu was also caused by a strain of avian flu. The flu wiped out up to 40 million people, and infected one quarter of the US and one fifth of the world. La Grippe was a gruesome killer, as victims were left to suffocate in the mucus and blood that filled their lungs within days.

The first human victim of the 1918 pandemic is thought to be a chicken cook in Fort Riley, Kansas. The virus waved through military camps in the US and killed many soldiers, but everyone was so concerned with World War I, the epidemic nature of the sickness went largely unnoticed and no real action was taken to contain it. The Spanish Flu quickly spread to affect the entire globe within 6 months, traveling with traders and army men. The flu killed many more people during the Great War than any weapons did. The war helped to spread the virus from soldier to soldier, and back to their families. Little was known about the genetics of viruses in those days and nations began to suspect some kind of biological warfare at play.

As the H5N1 strain continues to reach itself around the globe, killing poultry is only the first step. Human contact with all birds will need to become more limited, and we may soon see a drop in human to human contact as well. Bowing and “elbow tapping” may soon replace handshakes, and face masks may start showing up on the runways. If the pandemic does strike, we can all protect ourselves the same way that Japan did (they had no outbreaks) during the 2003 SARS epidemic: they never shook hands, and they taught all children the most important protective measure against disease - washing their hands!

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on February 26, 2006