Medical scares are like private lives - they have to be REALLY messy and affecting a lot of people before talking about them can be classed as "in the public interest". So it`s best to approach the topic of an avian flu pandemic with caution.

But the W.H.O. - normally a sober organization - is making fairly apoclyptic warnings and in some countries - the UK for one, a failure, perceived or real to start preparing for a possible pandemic is a major

...head patted quite flat with reassurance, we retreated...

political story. UK doctors are talking about possible deaths in the 500,000 to 2 million range, in the UK alone. To date, avian-flu has a death rate of around 75% of humans infected. Whether it would retain this mortality rate in the event of pandemic is unclear - but it is a high figure to start from...

Of course avian-flu has only jumped human to human on one known occasion - but some epidemiologists think it is just a matter of time. We tried chasing the story up with doctor contacts in Fukuoka - but remarkably there seems to be far less interest here amongst the medical profession, almost next door to Thailand and Vietnam, than in the West. So, head patted quite flat with reassurance, we retreated...

But it might be an idea to dig out your medical insurance and check you are adequately covered.

Oh - and check for feather`s `tween the shoulder blades, naturally...®