WITH bird flu apparently inching closer to the UK, and predictions of doom abounding, New Scientist (Jan 7) has some practical advice for those wishing to protect themselves and their families from avian adversity: get rich.

An eight-page “know your enemy” supplement says that rich people are less likely to succumb to a virus. They are generally healthier and can afford to take measures to protect themselves.

If getting rich is beyond your means, there are other tips. Become indispensable, for example, because “priority” people will be the first to get any available vaccine.

If there is no time to become a nurse, a firefighter or a head of state, then consider taking statins. Although normally used to lower cholesterol, early evidence suggests that they can protect you against the heart attack or stroke that flu can trigger.

But if bird flu does hit Britain, then your best defence may be frequent hand washing. Flu is spread mainly by touch and the deadly H5N1 virus can live on surfaces for up to six days. So don’t shake hands, kiss or touch public surfaces. Oh, and carry a nail brush and bottles of alcohol-based cleaning gel in case soap and water is not available.

Better still, isolate yourself and your family at home “with a lot of books and canned food”, assuming that you stocked up in advance. Alternatively, adopt the “high-risk strategy”. If the virus seems likely to circulate for months, it may become more virulent as time passes. “Get infected early on, before the healthcare system is overwhelmed and antivirals run out.”

Not that antivirals are guaranteed to work. GP (Jan 6) rounds up the evidence on drug-resistant forms of H5N1. “No single drug is likely to be the panacea for all our problems,” one expert says.

So stay home. Or get rich.

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