By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A top Bush Administration health official says the world is overdue for a major influenza outbreak.
Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Alex Azar was in St. Louis Thursday for a conference on flu pandemic readiness.
He says there has not been a global flu pandemic in decades, but all levels of government need to be prepared.
"We know that pandemics happen with recurrence. In the last 300 years we have had 10 flu pandemics, the last 100 years three," Azar said. "The last one was in 1968. We're simply overdue."
Azar said Missouri will receive nearly$ 2 million in federal money to begin planning a response.
Epidemiologists are especially concerned about the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
However that particular virus has only infected people who came in close contact with infected poultry.
And there have been no cases in the U.S., either in birds or humans.