The Wire

Governments and international organisation have begun preparations for potential outbreak of a flu pandemic as the United Nations announced today that a mutated bird virus could kill up to 150 million people. So far, the H5N1 virus has mainly infected people who were in close contact with infected birds, and has killed 66 people in four Asian countries in the last two years. Professor of virology and bird flu expert Greg Tannock of the RMIT University said it is not much we can do to prevent the pandemic.