Public-health officials and lab researchers are this week engaged in a frantic battle to contain the escalating outbreak of bird flu in Asia, and to minimize the risk of it developing into a human flu pandemic. The first cases of apparent human-to-human transmission of the avian flu virus were reported in Vietnam on 1 February, heightening public-health concerns. As officials struggle to contain the avian outbreak by orchestrating the massacre of chicken flocks, researchers around the world are preparing the way for the mass production of a vaccine that could help to contain a human pandemic. Individual human-to-human transmission of the virus doesn't necessarily mean that it has evolved into a strain that will, transmit readily enough to cause a significant outbreak, never mind a pandemic. But should a pandemic occur, many experts say that current public-health plans are unlikely to prevent large-scale loss of life. Previous human flu pandemics, such as the 1918 outbreak that killed about 40 million people, originated in birds.
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