Hundreds of thousands of birds in Asia died due to a virus that has been dubbed the "bird flu." The highly contagious illness is responsible for wiping out large numbers of poultry in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. The particular strain of influenza which has been reported as causing the deaths is called H5N1. Humans can contract the disease through close contact with infected birds, or with the feces of infected birds. It is not known to spread through human-to-human contact.

There have been several deaths due to the flu and the World Health Organization has expressed concern that the virus could latch on to a human influenza virus, potentially causing a serious epidemic. The bird flu's symptoms in humans include fever and coughing and eventual pneumonia.