BIRD FLU SPREADS

MIGHT 2008 BE THE YEAR IT BECOMES A PANDEMIC? MAYBE... HERE'S MORE BAD NEWS: IHT/AP:

Egyptian health officials reported the deaths Monday of two women from bird flu, bringing to 19 the number of the country's fatalities since the lethal H5N1 strain first appeared here last year.

The deaths, along with those of two other women just days ago, bring to four the number of women who died from the strain in a single week.

ORLANDO SENTINEL/AP:

LONDON - An outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in eastern England was confirmed Tuesday as H5N1 -- the same virulent strain that has killed scores of people around the world.

Bird flu's return to Britain -- weeks before the Christmas holidays -- is a yet another blow to Britain's farmers, already struggling after livestock herds were hit this year by foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.

Thousands of free-range turkeys, ducks and geese were being slaughtered at a farm in Redgrave in the county of Suffolk, about 80 miles northeast of London.

The source of the outbreak has not been identified but was closely related to the strains found in the Czech Republic and Germany earlier this year, acting Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said.

THE FACT THAT THIS FLU GOES FROM WILD BIRDS TO DOMESTICATED BIRDS, AND NOW TO HUMANS AND FROM HUMANS TO HUMANS MEANS IT CANNOT BE STOPPED.

IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF WHEN...