Bird flu epidemic could kill up to 10,000 in Ireland

A BIRD flu epidemic could kill as many as 10,000 people in Ireland, according to Department of Health figures.

The estimated death toll from a new flu pandemic varies widely from a low of 500 to a high of 10,000 depending on how many people will get the new variant flu, how virulent the virus is and whether a vaccine has been developed to deal with it.

Public health and veterinary experts across Europe are coming to terms with the weekend confirmation that the virus found in samples taken from Romanian ducks in the Danube Delta is the same lethal strain that struck in Asia, killing more than 60 people and causing the deaths of 140 million birds in a dozen countries.