Reply #3: Bird flu is already here [View All]

[spindoctor]

And with flu season on the way, there is no doubt that many birds, particularly ducks and geese will sniffle their way into the US again.

Now unless you spend a LOT of time in confined spaces with ducks and poultry (less common in the US than in some Asian countries where people still sleep with the life stock in one house), the chances of you catching a case of the funky chicken are slim to none.

You can NOT get bird flu from eating cooked poultry or eggs.

There is no known case of infection from human to human. There is only a THEORY that eventually a strain of avian flu will occur that can thrive on humans too.

Now there are many different kinds of bird flu (just like regular flu). Out of all those there is only one (H5N1) that is actually dangerous to humans. As usual, the people most likely to die from an infection with this disease are the weak (the elderly and the infants). If you don't feed raw chicken to your grandma, you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

I travel a lot to countries where bird flu epidemics actually occur and I'm still standing. I worry more about shark attacks in Idaho.