Beyond
Chicken

Bird Flu

Many of us have had the flu. We think we know what sort of disease it is. None of us have had the 1918 flu --- which was also a bird flu.

The flu of 1918 killed more people in 12 months than the black death of the middle ages (bubonic plague) killed in a century. It killed more people in that brief period than AIDS has killed in 25 years.

With 1918 flu, the aches and fever familiar to sufferers of today's flu frequently progressed to massive internal bleeding. People literally drowned in their own bloody secretions. They bled from their eyes, nostrils, ears. They bled into their lungs. They spat pure blood. When autopsies were done, people's lungs could be 6 times their normal weight.

The first person who died of H5N1 in Hong Kong in 1997 showed how people may die in a bird flu pandemic. He died after a week with multiple organ failure when his blood curdled.

By June 2007, the Australian Government had already spent $600 million dollars on preparations for worldwide flu (Herald-Sun June 9th).

Download our detailed birdflu leaflet for information on how the chicken industry is making a global bird flu pandemic unavoidable.