How do people get bird flu?
After extremely close contact with infected birds. That’s why it’s still considered safe to travel to Asia or other areas where bird flu rages. Still, wouldn’t it be a good precaution to restrict people from traveling to or from Asia and any place else that has been affected? There’s no need for such restrictions yet. The only precaution that’s needed is to stay away from actual contact with live birds — and if people want to be extra-careful, stay away from dead birds in a marketplace as well. If I do need to travel to a place where they have found bird flu, is it safe to eat poultry and eggs? Yes, as long as the meat or eggs are cooked. If bird flu is hard to get, why are people so scared? Roughly half of the humans who have contracted bird flu have died — a far higher mortality rate than the 1918 flu. Imagine, therefore, the devastation if this virus “learns” to jump from person to person, instead of very occasionally (and only with very close contact) moving from bird to human. “
