There was no indication that these were the Avian H5N1 virus, was there?
As I understand it there are thousands of deaths in the US from influenza every year, but the fear is that Avian flu, or some other strain, will repeat what happened around 1918, when 20 million died worldwide from the "spanish flu."
Pandemics are scary.
My aunt and her grown kids and their families live in Albuquerque. She's a semi-retired nurse and her late husband was the M.E. there until he retired in the 90s. She still works part time in the university hospital and would be exposed to any wide spread outbreak. When she's not at the hospital she helps her daughter run a gourmet cooking store up in the part of town towards Sandia. With folks in and out of there all day they'll be exposed to anything that comes along there, too.
see this?
No, not at all. That's why I said that flu season was late in starting this year. It was just the regular flu, but it seems to be a pretty nasty bug. Let's pray that the bird flu doesn't hit America.