clipped from: www.delawareonline.com Although the H5N1 virus does not readily spread among humans, experts are calling its spread among wild birds a pandemic.
Nearly everyone agrees avian flu is coming. It is expected to reach wild birds in Alaska in about three weeks and move to the East Coast, including Delaware, by summer.
The arrival of the flu this year does not necessarily signal the start of a human pandemic. People who have contracted the virus mostly consist of poultry farmers or individuals who have direct contact with infected or dead birds. But the virus is constantly changing, and scientists fear it will eventually acquire the ability to easily jump from person to person.
A worst-case scenario -- one in which an avian flu outbreak in humans sweeps the nation -- could have potentially disastrous economic effects.
Both economists and scientists forecast that the country will survive a pandemic. However, the world is so much more interconnected today than it was in years past that the economic impact, at least in the short term, could be devastating.
Small and large businesses that depend on foot traffic such as retail establishments would suffer the most as people avoid public places to keep from getting sick.