CDC Director Gerberding Cites Avian Flu As "Very Ominous" Threat
Image courtesy Joe Valbuena/USDA Avian flu, which has killed
millions of birds and several dozen people in Asia, poses a
"very ominous" threat to humans worldwide, the top doctor at the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned yesterday. In an address
to the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Dr. Julie Louise
Gerberding noted that the in its current form poses a relatively
limited problem for humans. But, she said, the current situation
"probably" resembles the period before the 1918 Spanish flu
outbreak when the virus was quietly mutating into a strain that
would eventually leave 50 million people dead. "Most people who
are looking at this recognize it is a very ominous situation for
the globe in terms of statistical probability" of a larger
outbreak among humans, Gerberding said. Gerberding's comments
Monday came just a day after Dr. Nancy Cox, the CDC's chief
influenza scientist, suggested to a AAAS audience that further
mutation in the