Pandemic. Part 1.

This two-part drama-documentary attempts to predict how the next influenza pandemic will hit us. The programme is based on the supposition that avian influenza H5N1 could potentially turn into a mutant humanised form of bird flu, become highly contagious and spread across the globe killing millions. In Part 1 we see how the virus might mutate and begin to spread in a distant region of somewhere like South East Asia where healthcare is at a minimum and gradually make its way to the Western world. In between the dramatic scenes the factual element of the programme compares this flu with the last great influenza pandemic of 1918 and uses many computer generated graphics to show the shape and path this new deadly virus might take.