We see this as a serious situation which bears close monitoring. This is a disconcertingly high mortality rate.

We try to stay out of the business of making predictions, but it seems reasonable to assume that the virus will continue to spread to adjacent areas,

It's not clear to us why we're seeing such a large case number.

In an epidemic, when you have a well informed public you have a far greater chance that there will not be any panic and that they will do things to keep themselves healthy and slow the spread,

The more widespread it becomes, the greater the possibility that the (bird flu) virus could become altered and become more of a threat to the human population.

Our review of the literature says this appears to be bigger than in the past.