You might think that one or other of our numerous candidates for President would have found time to express their views on bird flu and the country's preparations for combating it. However, even if aspiring politicians and the public have been resting the topic, the scientists have been busy. There have been several news items about it in the last 6 months - here's a summary.

In June, the FDA and manufacturers announced plans to expedite vaccine development. Sanofi, Glaxo, Novartis, and Medimmune are likely producers. It's likely that an adjuvant - an oil-and-water combination - will be used to make dilutions of the vaccine that are still effective in providing immunization.

Around the same time, a Thai researcher said that there was no evidence that the H5N1 strain exists in a mild, subclinical form - it's likely to be transmitted inefficiently to humans, but when that occurs it's a very serious infection.

In August, the Department of Health and Human Services promised extra funding to states for improved bird flu preparedness. And in September there was news of a system to allow speedy detection of H5N1 in throat swabs - 4 times faster and 50 times cheaper than existing tests.

Next came reports of a mutation in the bird virus circulating in Africa and Europe. The throat temperature of birds is about 1060 F, while that of humans is about 91.40 F. The mutation allows the virus to live well in the relatively cooler temperatures of human throats, facilitating transmission to man.

Australians reported in November that inexpensive physical barriers, such as regular hand-washing and wearing masks, gloves, and gowns, may be more effective than reliance on antiviral medications or vaccines to prevent spreads of the virus. This view was based on review of over 50 studies of respiratory viral spread done in the last 40 years.

Perhaps the relative calm is justified in view of the few, small outbreaks of human cases in the last 6 months. According to the World Health Organization, there were 83 cases (with 55 deaths) in 9 countries in 2007. The top 4 countries were Indonesia, Egypt, Viet Nam and China. (A recent small outbreak in Pakistan is not included in these results.) So don't panic, yet; maybe we'll dodge the bullet, once again.