A disaster waiting to happen!

Remember the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918? Like today's threat, it started in birds and migrated to humans. It hit every country on earth. Not one was spared. The epidemic sped around the globe in only five months.

When and if bird flu completes its last necessary mutation to jump from birds to humans, think how fast it will travel. Today a plane can circle the earth in less time than a train could cross the continent back then.

In 1918 and 1919 more than 21 million people died. A quarter of the world's population was infected. With more crowded cities, non-stop air travel, and poor hygiene still in many parts of the world, how fast would it travel today? Experts fear it will be only a matter of weeks before it spreads globally.

And don't think that antibiotics will help. Flu is a virus, and antibiotics don't work on viruses. If they did, we wouldn't have flu, and we wouldn't have AIDs anymore either. Viruses are as tough to kill as bacteria was before penicillin.

Human are about to see what could be the biggest human disaster in history, and there are only a handful of companies that may have the potential to prevent it.

Governments worldwide are preparing for a global disaster of untold magnitude. Containment relies on having billions of doses of vaccine stockpiled and ready. The problem: There is none.

And so authorities are anxiously awaiting a vaccine that works. A vaccine that is quickly produced and stable in storage. A vaccine like the one being developed by many drug company.

There are currently only four drugs on the market that can battle even the mildest flu. But the lethal strain known as bird flu, or H5N1, is resistant to even to our best weapon, oseltamivir, branded as Tamiflu.

Even if Tamiflu worked, it would be too little, too late. The product must be stored at below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. That is well beyond the capabilities of the world's third world countries where the disease would spread far and fast.

What's more, all of the flu vaccines are made by a broken down system that's a disaster waiting to happen. The vaccines are made by harvesting viruses in chicken eggs. But the bird flu virus is as deadly to the eggs as it is to the chickens. And so the virus must first be deactivated by altering its genetic code.

The whole process can take up to six months. And that's supposing that the bird flu hasn't already wiped out the billions of chickens necessary to produce the eggs to produce the virus.

Health agencies around the world are chomping at the bit for their vaccine product. The U.S. has earmarked $3.9 billion to buy vaccines. The figurative purchase orders are already written.

Bird flu is the biggest health danger of our time. More than half of everyone infected has died. Experts say we could be only months from a worldwide pandemic that could kill tens of millions.

It is estimated that if there is a pandemic soon. The death toll could be from 2 to 7.4 million fatalities. Unless an effective vaccine is found and produced.

So taking a look at the drug companys that R&D on bird flu drug. It could be the "new oil & gas" for investors.

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News drives up share prices. And big news equals big gains. Look at recent history: 9/11 drove up defense and security shares. Hurricane Katrina and other crisis events drove up oil and gas shares. But oil's played out. The avian flu index is up 43.69% so far this year, to oil's 14%.

Bird flu is one of the biggest crisis stories in years. And this is just the beginning. If you bought the right vaccine developer today and you could potentially be holding the best, most profitable buy you've made in years.

Looking back last winter, as news of the global bird flu scare picked up going into last winter's flu season, share prices of vaccine makers skyrocketed.

If you think that's impressive, wait till bird flu hits the U.S., as experts think it will sometime this winter. The story will dominate headlines, and vaccine makers' share prices could skyrocket to astronomical gains!

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