Scientists have identified at least one reason bird flu isn't spreading easily from person to person. The virus concentrates itself too deep in the lungs to be spewed out by coughing and sneezing.  The findings have concrete implications for vaccine development.  The vaccines, in turn, may offer a way for us to rid the world of the twin scourges known as Intelligent Design and Creationism....

Avian flu is very contagious among birds.  It is not so contagious among humans...yet.  It is well known that almost every documented case of bird flu has been in people who had intimate and extended contact with infected birds.   Some rare cases have been reported where human to human transmission are suspected.  However, most of these were also in people who were in contact with birds as well.   The relatively high mortality rate of those infected is a cause for concern.  If human to human transmission of the infection became widespread, we would have a pandemic to rival or surpass the flu pandemic of 1918.  Millions would die. Now for the good news.

Think things are bad in Iraq?  What with hundreds of kidnappings, a thousand or so reprisal killings each month, an infrastructure still in ruins, and, oh yeah, that whole war and occupation thing, you might be forgiven for thinking that Iraq has had a rough go.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Because right now, up in the Kurdish area of Iraq, a story is brewing that brings all of our worst fears together.  It looks like bird flu may have spread to Iraq.

So far, the flu may have killed a teenage girl

The girl suspected of having the disease was from the town of Raniya, in a border region of Kurdish northern Iraq.  She died shortly after arriving at a hospital in the main city of Suleymaniyah.

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It is not yet clear when the results of the tests for bird flu will be known.

Let's hope those tests come back soon, and pray that they are negative.  Otherwise, the danger goes far beyond Iraq.