The  H5N1 strain has killed more than 150 people since December 2004. The opposition parties called on the government to take action, but the Department of Health have said it was already addressing many of the Royal Society's concerns.  Professor Lindsey Davies, the DoH's director of pandemic influenza preparedness, has said: "We do keep our pandemic preparedness planning under constant review with the advice and assistance of our scientific advisory group."Our antiviral strategy is informed by international consensus and expert advice, and the current stockpile should be adequate to treat all those who fall ill in a pandemic of similar proportions to those in the 20th century."The  report also says that aside from procuring new drugs, the Department of Health's relationship with the scientific and pharmaceutical community is "inadequate". This is a  problem given the work needed to help develop a bird flu vaccine.It it would be difficult for manufacturers of vaccine to supply the nation in the event of a major pandemic. it would also be difficult to predict the exact form of the virus rendering the possibilities of Tamiflu or any other precersive medicines from been effective.

The Spanish flu of 1918 ripped through the population of Europe killing more people than the combined dead of the First World War. Scientists are still researching the nature of the disease due to its little understood nature, as it had a tendency  to attack disproportionately people who would normally be regarded as the least of vulnerable. That being the young and the fit. The world is overdue another pandemic of influenza in whichever form that it comes. Britain is already one of the best-prepared nations to deal with such an outbreak. But if theH5NI strain mutates there is unfortunately very little that we could do and that scares me, as the problems in the Middle East will pale into insignificance if there is an outbreak of a viralant form of influenza.