Will H7N9 Flu Go Pandemic? There's Good News and Bad News - The Atlantic

Will H7N9 Flu Go Pandemic? There's Good News and Bad News - The Atlantic:
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keeps a Most Wanted list for flu viruses.
...At the top of the list, with scores of 6.5 for emergence and 7.5 for impact, is H7N9.
...H7 viruses infect birds, and only very rarely jump into humans.
H7N9 in particular had never been known to infect humans at all before 2013, when it caused an unexpected epidemic in China.
It was billed as low-pathogenic (or “low-path”) because it only caused mild disease in chickens. But in humans, the story was different:
Of the 135 people infected, around a quarter died.
Every year since, there’s been a new epidemic, and the current one is the worst.
...“It was a matter of time,” says the flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It wasn’t surprising to see this change.”
...“Clearly this is a virus that we don’t want to become any more transmissible between humans.”
“When you compare H5 and H7 viruses, I think H7 are more worrisome,” says Kawaoka..."
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