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H5N1 (AKA Bird Flu, Avian Influenza) is one very deadly variant of the flu, however, it remains difficult to catch unless one is in direct contact with infected birds or breating the dust from the feces of those birds. There have been relativley few cases of human to human transmission. The possibility exists that through recombination a more infectious strain might emerge, which could produce a pandemic of terrible proportions.

It becomes a numbers game at some point where the sheer number of people infected in a less deadly strain actually result in more fatalaties than the relatively few fatalities (number wise) from a less infectious strain with a much higher lethal outcome, just because the latter affects far fewer people.

Because of the locale involved (East Asia), and the relatively rapid spread along migration pathways in bird populations, it was expected that H5N1 posed a potential threat to humans worldwide. Thankfully, that threat has not developed, even though small outbreaks of one to a few cases still occur sporadically.