The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu

From the acclaimed writer The Nation calls the "master of disaster prose," a terrifying forecast of a new global threat."We are talking at least seven million deaths, but maybe more—10 million, 20 million, and the worst case, 100 million."—Shigeru Omi, Regional Director, western pacific office of the World Health Organization, November 2004Avian influenza is a viral asteroid on a collision course with humanity. In 1918, a pandemic strain of influenza killed at least 40 million people in three months. Now, leading researchers believe, another world catastrophe is imminent.A virus of astonishing lethality, known as H5N1, has become entrenched in the poultry and wild bird populations of East Asia. It kills two out of every three people it infects.