Birds typically have a body temperature of 102. When suffering from a virus, their body temp can rise to 107 to fend off the virus.
Humans kill viruses by raising their body temperature to 102 or 103.
A bird-flu would likely survive temperatures of 104-105 which would cause irreparable damage to the human body.
This is the issue... a virus that is human-borne which can survive extreme body temperatures.
Aha, that explains why humans have such a hard time dealing with that sort of virus. Thanks for the info.
How does the flu kill? Is it the high fever, fluid in the lungs, or something else?
Besides the body temperature issues, do not forget that a newly evolved human-bird flue virus will face no resistnace from the human immune system. Since no human has every been exposed to this virus, the human immune system is unprepared for infection. Other flu viruses that have been around for a while are self-similar enough that a healthy adult will have some immune response to it. THis new bug is just that - new. Survivors will have some immunity to future variations, but not to the initial pandemic.