"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America"

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

April 18, 2006 -- The movie follows Avian Flu through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human.

On Tuesday, May 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), ABC will bring to television a two-hour original movie. "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human around the world.

The meticulously researched film stars Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck"), Stacy Keach ("Prison Break," "Blackbeard"), Ann Cusack ("Grey's Anatomy," "Ghost Whisperer"), Justina Machado ("Six Feet Under"), Scott Cohen ("Street Time," "Law & Order: Trial by Jury") and David Ramsey ("All of Us").

The movie opens with an American businessman flying to Hong Kong to meet with his Asian manufacturers. After 11 meetings in three countries in six days, he starts his return to Virginia. But before he returns home, the Chinese government has informed the World Health Organization that a new strain of the Avian Flu virus was discovered in a local marketplace. Over 1.2 million infected birds were killed in an attempt to eradicate this strain. Dr. Iris Varnack (Richardson) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service receives an emergency summons to China, where she discovers these efforts may have come too late. Despite the early warning, the H5N1 virus has mutated into a version that can spread from human to human -- shown in eye-opening detail whenever the microbes start to permeate the atmosphere - across races, nationalities, genders and ages.

John M. Barry, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Tulane University and writer of the New York Times bestseller, "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," served as a consultant on the project. Barry's book, which includes a new afterword on today's Avian Flu, focuses on the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed between 50-100 million people.

The film deals with the current threat of the Avian Flu virus (H5N1). Scientists continue to debate the degree to which the virus can mutate and be easily passed among human beings.

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