Bird flu is not uncommon. It has happened before in our history. Although there has not been an outbreak in quite some time, there has recently been suspicion that the avian flu is present in many domesticated birds across the country. Especially in Iowa. This article states that over 31 million birds have been euthanized due to the suspicion that they carried the bird flu. Fortune.com goes into detail of the disease as well as where it has hit hardest thus far. In 1997, the same virus was circling around actually caused the death of some people who managed to catch the disease. This site explains that it is very rare for this particular disease to be spread among humans. It is hard for a human to pass it on to another human. The disease is acquired through close contact to any birds infected with the disease. This means if you come in contact with their droppings or even eat chicken that is infected. It is even being predicted that egg prices will rise dramatically as a result of this disease.

This bird flu is spreading was spreading very rapidly in Asia in the past and scientists are were working very hard to slow down the virus to keep it from turning into a human pandemic just like this article states. What makes this disease so scary is the fact that it is derived from the influenza virus which killed a lot of people in the past and seems to not have gone away. My suspicion is that the influenza virus, although it was eradicated a while ago, has evolved into a virus that stays inside of birds for now. But who is to say that the influenza virus will not evolve again and become ten times more powerful than it was in the past? This same idea has been considered and tossed around by a lot of different people. That is where movies like “Contagion” were given life. That very same instance can be applied to modern day and the bird flu. This avian flu has been rediscovered on multiple occasions in many different forms. So obviously the influenza virus is still strong enough to come back and haunt us to this day. I think that this bird flu only found in birds needs to be paid more attention to before it is a virus that a majority of the population extracts as well. We know what influenza can do. We have seen the deadly effects it has. This is not just some theory that a bored scientist came up with on the fly. This is something that can kill us and it’s slowly coming back. Wake up. It is time to get more serious about this deadly disease.