With the financial crisis diverting politicians’ attention, and no sign after a decade that the H5N1 virus is set to trigger a pandemic, public health specialists are worried that the world is turning its back on the continued threat of a lethal flu outbreak.

Getting the bird: A quarantine inspector in China

It was in Hong Kong in 1997 that researchers identified the first six human deaths confirmed from H5N1, a year after they had isolated the virus in a goose in China, and before Sars (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) provided a warning of how far and fast lethal new infectious diseases could spread.