TV bird flu movie misleading, says Ag commissioner

TV bird flu movie misleading, says Ag commissioner
May 14, 2006

The Weekly: After ABC aired its movie, "Fatal Contact," about the avian bird flu, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said the fictional TV show may confuse people when they hear the words "avian influenza" or "bird flu." "The movie did not do a good job of distinguishing between avian influenza in birds and the pandemic flu which affects people. It may leave the impression that every strain of bird flu is a pandemic one. In fact, no pandemic strain of avian influenza exists anywhere in the world at this time and the current strain is not easily transmitted to humans," Irvin said.