Start writing your wills . There is no defence against this
virulent virus and now that it has mutated to spread from human to
human expect billions dead.

excerpt
Mutation of bird flu virus in Turkey stirs concerns
The change could heighten human risk
By Daniel Williams and Alan Sipress, Washington Post  |  January 12,
2006

ISTANBUL -- Preliminary tests show that the strain of bird flu virus
that has hit at least 15 people in Turkey has evolved in a way that
could make it somewhat more hazardous to human beings, although it
still lacks the capacity to be passed easily from person to person,
international health officials said yesterday.

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analysis, based on the sequencing of one of the virus's genes,
suggests that at least some of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Turkey
carries a change in one of its proteins, according to Michael Perdue
of the World Health Organization. That protein is what lets the virus
attach to cells and penetrate them.

''It's a little concerning because the virus is still trying new
things in its evolution," said Perdue, who is overseeing the agency's
response to the Turkish outbreak from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Influenza specialists are studying the apparent change to determine
its significance, Perdue said. A spokesman for Britain's Medical
Research Council, which is involved in the research, said it would
take a few days to confirm the preliminary findings.

The specialists believe the genetic change could make it easier for
the virus to pass from chickens to people. It has not given it the
capacity to be easily passed from person to person -- a trait the
virus would need in order to trigger a global epidemic of bird flu.

Nancy Cox, who heads the influenza branch at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, said the change was found in one sample of
H5N1 isolated from a Turkish child who recently died of the infection.
The hemagglutinin protein, which the virus uses to attach to cells of
the respiratory tract, had an alteration not usually seen in avian
influenza viruses. Other incremental changes in the virus have been
seen in China and Vietnam since outbreaks began in 2003.

Specialists from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that
the virus could become permanently entrenched in Turkey, thereby
increasing its risk to people and the chance it could evolve further.
''The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus