Fear in Europe over the imminent arrival of avian flu began in earnest months ago, when health officials found the first cases in Russia and Ukraine after migratory birds brought them over the Ural Mountains. But the discovery this week of cases in Turkey and Romania suggest that a deadly strain of bird flu will likely reach Western Europe and Germany in a matter of weeks. Though the only people known to have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu have been Asian poultry workers, the idea that it could arrive here and at some point mutate into a disease that humans can pass on to others is enough to raise the fear of God in many. Indeed, most newspaper stories point out the fact that the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed 50 million people around the world also had its origins in birds. And H5N1 is particularly aggressive and deadly -- of the humans who have contracted through direct contact with infected birds, 50 percent have died.

Many German papers go with bird flu on their front pages, but the mass circulation Bild, literally a daily chronicle of doom and gloom, doesn't hit the story until page 10. (Apparently the editors deemed a book about the death of the first child of pop star Nena "99 Luftballoons" over a decade ago to have greater news value.) The European Union, the paper reports, has officially confirmed that the bird flu found in Turkey is in fact H5N1, which can be deadly to humans who come into direct contact with birds infected by it. "The killer virus is approaching Germany," the paper warns. It adds that in Germany's major cities, there's been a rush on the prescription-only anti-flu drug "Tamiflu," with supplies selling out in Berlin and other places. Doctors, however, say it will in no way help people to take the pills before they have any flu symptoms. The EU, the paper reports, has also increased controls at major airports, motor ways and borders, while at the same time placing bans on poultry imports from both Turkey and Romania, where bird flu has also been found. Germany, meanwhile, is taking measures to prevent the illegal import of poultry into the country. The paper quotes a doctor stating that the virus doesn't currently pose the threat of a mass killer virus, since it can only be transferred by direct contact. Then it goes on to ask the obvious question one might expect from the tabloid: Is it still safe to eat chicken doner kebabs? No, the paper answers, the virus is killed when the meat is cooked. 

The leftist Die Tageszeitung uses the run on Tamiflu in Western Europe as a jumping off point to rant about the divide between industrial nations and poor countries. First the paper takes Germans and other Europeans to task for purchasing a drug that cannot prevent influenza -- it can only reduce influenza's symptoms. However, the paper does not another positive trait in Tamiflu -- it can be effective in reducing the possibility of  transmission of traditional strains of influenza from one person to another. This, the paper's editorial argues, could indeed help prevent the melding of a traditional flu with avian flu to create a deadly super virus. But therein lies the rub: Europeans can afford to buy this drugs, but the residents of poorer countries in Asia where avian flu has already been a problem for years and poses the greatest risk of morphing into something worse don't have access to it. "We should provide other countries with access to Tamiflu as quickly as possible," the paper concludes.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung steps back from the imminent crisis and looks at the bigger picture. The threat of a super virus causing millions of deaths has been predicted throughout time. "The only thing scientists can agree upon," it writes, "is that somewhere, someday, another flu pandemic will break out." Still, that doesn't mean steps shouldn't be taken to prepare for the threat and the current danger must be addressed immediately. Culling suspect birds, the paper argues, may help, but it is "far more important to create structures that can quickly and efficiently counter the outbreak of a flu pandemic." The world needs more disease experts and they in turn need to create more effective methods of diagnosing new illnesses as they emerge. After all, you can only create a vaccine and halt the disease's spread if you can quickly identify the pathogen.

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung offers the same sage advice: Get the proper international public health infrastructures in place so we can eliminate the animal infections before they turn into human infections. And until the disease actually becomes a human one (if ever), the paper writes, it is unconstructive to say it is harmful to everyone. "The normal flu virus that hit the winter before last and new ones that will hit the population are the real enemy," the paper writes. And the current news is no reason to make a run on the pharmacy for Tamiflu. Indeed, the people who have the most to fear are poultry farmers -- whose businesses could be severely damaged by an outbreak of bird flu. Indeed, the potential economic destruction is far greater than the threat to human life, the paper writes, because of the "comparably low" possibility of human infection. "Only people who come into close and unprotected contact with infected birds can get infected," it reminds its readers, noting that the bird flu that killed a veterinarian in Holland three years ago and almost reached Germany, posed a bigger threat than H5N1 does at the moment.

The Financial Times Deutschland features a cartoon showing Angela Merkel and Gerhard Schröder under the headline "arguments for a sterilized partnership." Merkel, who has always argued for a "privileged partnership" for Turkey rather than full European Union membership, says "you see. If Turkey were a member, we'd already have bird flu within the EU." On a more serious note, in the editorial on the same page the paper warns against underestimating the disease. While being realistic about previous illnesses where the danger was exaggerated, such as BSE and foot-and-mouth disease, the commentator believes if a dangerous strain of bird flu were to spread across Europe the consequences should be taken seriously. However the paper is also cautious about over-dramatizing the situation. "Alarmist predictions are not called for. There is no evidence of a mutated 'super virus' which would wipe out millions of people." The main worry is more of a business nature, the writer believes, than of a national health crisis. "There will possibly be gruesome images of the mass killings of animals. For individual companies this would mean economic catastrophe." As far as the health issue goes, concludes the paper, as long as there is no disagreement between local, national and European governments, the continent is well placed to defend itself from the potential threats of a virus.