On Friday, April 28 Indonesia reported that a man had died from the bird flu, while China reported that an 8-year old girl had contracted the disease. Bird flu has infected 204 people, 113 of whom have died, since it began ravaging Asian poultry in 2003. So far, all of the deaths have been in Asia. However, Great Britain reported finding a swan with the flu earlier in April. The British government also plans to slaughter 35,000 chickens after bird flu was found among dead birds on one of the country’s largest poultry farms.

So far, all of the cases of bird flu have been contracted directly from birds. Only those who come in frequent contact with birds are likely to catch the disease. However, scientists are worried that if the disease mutates into a form which can be passed from human to human, it could pose a serious threat. There is not yet any sign of this happening

If bird flu does mutate into a form which can be passed from person to person, a study found that it could strike as much as one third of the U.S. population. A study done by Neil Ferguson of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College in London is “very pessimistic”. According to Ferguson, the U.S. is ill-prepared for such an epidemic. Combining use of the antiviral Tamiflu with school closings could reduce the disease's toll a bit, Ferguson said. But efforts to stop flu from entering U.S. borders -- usually on planes with sick passengers -- won't work, he said. At most, such efforts can buy a couple of weeks' delay before the disease sets in, he said.

For now, U.S. spy satellites are keeping track of the infected flocks of birds, which left Asia and are heading to Siberia and Alaska, where they will mingle with flocks from North America.  And although the U.S. poultry industry has taken precautions, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns said, "There's no way you can protect the United States by building a big cage around it and preventing wild birds from flying in and out."

U.S. Secretary of Heath and Human Services Michael Leavitt offered some advice on how to prepare for a bird flu pandemic. On March 12th, he recommended that Americans begin storing canned tuna and powdered milk under their beds. Secretary Leavitt has not yet provided an explanation for this somewhat puzzling advice.