GETTING CL0SE TO A WORLDWIDE BIRD FLU PANDEMIC?

(NATIONAL) -- There's a sort of bogy-man nightmare, a real Freddy Kruger thing that sits in the backs of the minds of people who work in the infectious disease area. A new bird flu strain originating in China mutates, is able then to jumps from bird to humans - as it already has - then mutates again so that it becomes very contagious form human to human.

Then one day an infected human gets on a plane and arrives in Los Angeles, New York or Seattle. Before you know it there is monster outbreak of a serious illness for which no human has a built in immune system response and for which no vaccine exists. Hundreds of thousands if not millions could die in a new worldwide killer flu pandemic.

And that is why infectious disease specialists from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and their colleagues worldwide are keeping close tabs on what is happening in China right now -- because such a pandemic could make North Korean leader Kim Jpong-un's pouty saber rattlings and tough guy talk look like a walk in the proverbial park.