Bird Flu is back

Just when you thought you had heard the last about the dreaded bird flu, the deadly H5N1 virus has resurfaced again. The Virus has shown up in poultry in Hong Kong for the first time in six years, which has official’s warnings that the risk of a human pandemic isn’t over.

India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and China also experienced new cases in December. During the same time, four new human cases popped up in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia

Officials are saying that the year-end rise is a reminder of how fast the situation can turn into a problem, as long as the H5N1 virus is still out there. Scientists fear that people have developed a case of pandemic-preparedness fatigue.

They warn that it should be taken seriously and say that as many as half a billion chicken have already been killed by the virus. They are also warning that H5N1 could cause a human pandemic like the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed around 50 million people worldwide.