H5N1

While it might not be considered fun by most people, one of my pet projects is to monitor the spread of the deadly strain of the avian flu, H5N1. Its spread is accelerating, having come to 20 of its confirmed 45 nations (as well as the so-far-unconfirmed Ethiopia and Pakistan) in the first 75 days of 2006. This is not really of large concern considering the disease, in its current manifestation, has only killed 98 of 177 people it has infected worldwide since 2003. However, as anyone with a basic understanding of biology understands, all that has to happen for this to turn into a global pandemic is for a person with a conventional flu to contract the H5N1 strain and have them recombine within them. That person would likely spread the newly mutated virus to everyone they contacted, and so on. The rest of the story is not so hard to imagine.

I suppose, at this point, it is just a matter of whether or not the bug gets us before we do...