Three recent outbreaks of avian influenza -- the first two in Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu and the third in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture -- serve as a warning about a possible outbreak of an influenza pandemic that could cause millions of deaths worldwide. Virus samples taken from dead chickens in the first two outbreaks -- Jan. 10 in the town of Kiyotake and Jan. 23 in Hyuga City -- pointed to the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain as the culprit. This strain has pandemic potential because it is feared that it could mutate into a virus that can be transmitted from human to human.

Since the mutant virus would be new, people in general would have no immunity to it. The new form of influenza would spread quickly, causing more serious illness than normal influenza. The strain responsible for the third outbreak on Jan. 26 was found to be type H5.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 267 people have been infected with the nonmutant H5N1 strain in 10 countries since 2003; 161 of them have died. Indonesia has seen 62 deaths, the largest number, followed by 42 deaths in Vietnam, 17 in Thailand, 14 in China and 10 in Egypt.