Everything You Need to Know about Bird Flu (Revill) & The new killer germs (Moor

Everything You Need to Know about Bird Flu & what You Can Do to Prepare for it By Jo Revill · 2005 

Humans have no natural immunity to bird flu. Its symptoms are severe and can lead to death within five to six days. While so far all victims have caught the virus directly from infected birds, many scientists fear that it is just a matter of time before the virus mutates and begins to spread from human to human, leading to a pandemic that could kill up to 40 million people around the world. Cutting through the deluge of news stories about bird flu, this definitive guide explains how the bird flu virus works, the harm that it has already caused in Asia, why it will be so deadly if it begins to spread between humans, and what has been done so far to protect communities from the threat (not enough, many scientists fear). It will look at the antiviral drugs which offer us short-term protection, but also investigate why we have done so little to invest in vaccine development. In addition to giving the background story of the bird flu pandemic, the book is full of practical information on what people can do to protect themselves, including advice from experts on how to boost the immune system and procedures to follow if the pandemic arrives. 

As bird flu continues to spread around the world and the number of people dying from hospital-acquired infections rises yearly, the possibility of another plague has become a terrifying prospect. World leaders are now struggling against two critical foes. Firstly they need contingency plans that can cope with another pandemic. Secondly they need to combat global terrorism. And then there is the very real potential for an unprecedented and devastating combination of the two - biological warfare. This gripping study of biological agents of disease explores the history of outbreaks, points to the most insidious strains on the horizon, and explores the likelihood of deliberate contamination.