# 744
It's not a new warning, and in fact, I've written about it in the past (see It Isn't just Bird Flu). The H5N1 virus is only one, of a number of possible pandemic candidates out there.
However, when Dr. Anthony Fauci says it, it carry's more weight.
Bird flu not only pandemic risk, U.S. experts warn
Wed May 9, 2007 12:03AM BST
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - While many health experts see the H5N1 bird flu virus as a likely cause for an influenza pandemic, another influenza virus could just as likely mutate into a global killer, U.S. health experts said on Tuesday.
"You can not accurately predict if and when a given virus will become a pandemic virus," said Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci said too little is known about exactly how and when a virus will mutate. Focusing too much on one suspect -- even a very likely suspect such as H5N1 -- may be a mistake.
"We should not ... forget the fact that historically pandemics have evolved. We should be building up the knowledge base and expanding the capabilities of making vaccines," he said in a telephone interview.
Fauci and colleagues, writing in a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said pandemic prevention strategies must based on "expecting the unexpected and being capable of reacting accordingly."
The good news is, that pandemic preparedness for one virus gives us some protection against another pathogen. True, a stockpile of H5N1 specific vaccine might not help, but an enhanced ability to create and manufacture vaccines would.
The pandemic exercises and planning going on today will be useful whether the next pandemic stems from H5N1, H9N2, H7N7, or something as yet undetected.
Michael Leavitt has been repeating a simple truth for 18 months. One we need to remember.
Pandemics happen.
