Preparing for pandemic: know how to bury your dead, By Andrew Stern

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - When burying a body in the backyard, don't put it too close to the septic system. That was one piece of advice offered on Wednesday to a business conference on preparing for a potentially lethal bird flu andemic.

Preparations for a global flu pandemic, which many experts believe is overdue, have begun but the grisly details are horrific and the number of sick could quickly overwhelm the health care system.

Needed supplies of even common medical supplies such as surgical masks and gloves are in doubt, not to mention the syringes needed for an as-yet undeveloped vaccine and costly mechanical ventilators.

The H5N1 avian flu virus that has infected flocks on at least three continents and killed 91 people could be the virus that experts fear will mutate into a highly pathogenic form that kills hundreds of millions of people in a matter of weeks or months.

In Seattle, public health officials are weighing the ramifications of hospitals overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of sick people and the need for thousands of body bags.

"We talk about how people should bury their dead in their backyards, how far from the septic systems," said Dorothy Teeter, director of the King County public health department in Seattle. "In case you're wondering, it's $20 apiece for high-quality body bags. In New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina) they had to double-bag bodies."