Avian Flu- Round Four of the Industrial Era

Yes, that's right avian flu is back again and it's time you and I start worrying about it. In the article "Avian Flu: Preparing for a Pandemic," Tom Walsh goes on to descibe the social and economic impacts that an outbreak would have in our modern world and steps that should be taken in order to prevent lasting global demise. I myself was a skeptic on the avian flu outbreak until exposed to recent literature on the subject. South asian and other developing countries are becoming increasingly prone to producing a human-to-human strain that could essentially kills tens of millions of people. To explain the vulnerability of developing countries to harboring avian flu is quite simple. Avian flu as you probably guessed is primarily found in wild birds or poulty, however, like many of the zoonotic viruses it may transfer and mutate in vivo into a more transmissable disease. The Chinese wet-markets, which have been part of the Chinese culture for hundreds of years, are farmer's markets where people can buy live animals for cooking purposes. Unfortunately, putting humans and animals in this high contact environment increases the chances of influenza mutating into a human-to-human form. Walsh goes on to explain that in the event a highly transmissable strain surfaces a widespread pandemic would come quickly, mostly in part to effecient global travel and product exporting. As a result all countries would be effected and economies would suffer greatly. To start off it is expected that if a flu pandemic were to occur more than 100 million people may die worldwide (200,000 estimated to die in the United States). However it wouldn't end there, Walsh cites research that indicates the world would suffer almost 1 trillion dollars in economic damage. All in all, corporate businesses and more importantly governments should focus efforts on early detection and early response, (as stated in Larry Brilliant's TEDtalk), as well as preparedness for business continuity and post-pandemic repair.