“A dark outlook got even darker on Monday, when delegates to a meeting at World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva heard grim forecasts of the potential costs of an avian flu pandemic. The H5N1 strain has killed half of the 120 people it has infected; if it acquires the ability to pass directly from person to person it could kill millions and cause as much as $800 billion in economic damage across the world, experts warned.

‘It is only a matter of time before an avian influenza, most likely the H5N1 strain, acquires the ability to be transmitted human-to-human,’ warned WHO director-general Lee Jong-wook. ‘The signs are that it is coming.'” (Hard To Do Any Worse)