text: I actually work in infection control at a hospital.  Right now the nation stand point is not a matter of "if" the disease comes to the US but "when".  Hospitals are being told to develop a plan for a pandemic with vaccines and anti-virals.  Then they are supposed to rewrite the plan with the reality that they probably won't get either, or definately won't have enough to go around.  The virus currently can not be transmitted from human to human but influenza is the most adaptive virus out there.  That is why people catch it over and over.  Eventually the virus will mutate into a form that can be transmitted from human to human, at that point we will have a pandemic.  This current strain is being compared to the virus of 1918 that killed millions, it has the same rapid development and ability to kill perfectly healthy people.  Most viruses kill those that are already sick, old or young.  The best recommendations at the current time are to get a flu vaccine.  It won't completely prevent the bird flu but it will lessen the effects.  And proper hygiene, especially handwashing, you just don't realize the things you touch in a day and how easy transmission is.  I hope that helps.