Even before the so-called avian flu, virus H5N1, came under the media spotlight, some U.S. hospitals had been getting ready for possible mass infections. "There's been work going on under the Homeland Security Department," explained Rick Hermans, P.E., senior project manager for Research and Engineering Department, Center for Energy and the Environment, Minneapolis.
Public health experts have identified H5N1 as an extremely dangerous virus capable of killing humans quickly. It has been discovered in avian livestock and migratory birds, although at least one quarantined parrot was found with H5N1.