People are being urged to avoid live poultry and take other precautions to avoid contracting the flu in China, where six people have died so far, according to news reports. Over three to five million people contract severe influenza per year worldwide, resulting in up to half a million deaths. In 2003, the SARS epidemic (a respiratory disease also linked to animals) in southern China, killed over 700 people - the death rate was over 50% for infections among people 65 years and older.
The risk of a worldwide pandemic is a serious issue. In 1918, the Spanish flu epidemic infected up to half a billion people and took the lives of 50-100 million people (about 3-5% of the world's population at the time).
Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/world/asia/china-escalates-response-to-avian-flu-outbreak.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
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