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How do you catch flu from a chicken? That's one of many questions on the minds of Americans who aren't sure how to react to scary headlines and ominous warnings about avian flu.

World health officials say we may be on the verge of a bird-flu pandemic, though, so far, the disease has killed fewer than 70 people since it emerged as a threat eight years ago. The disease is found mostly in Asia, but it's carried by migrating birds and is certain to spread everywhere, including the United States.

So what do we do next? Here are some answers to questions about avian flu and what you can do to protect yourself.

Do North American birds have avian flu?

The disease hasn't arrived on our shores yet, but experts predict it probably will arrive here as early as the spring, when infected migrating birds on their way to the Arctic mix with North American birds.

Will that put humans at risk?

Right now, the bird-flu virus doesn't move from bird to human very easily. It requires very close contact with an infected bird, feces or blood. In Asia, most of the people who have become infected are those who have raised poultry, killed and plucked birds, or worked closely with infected domestic or wild birds. For instance, in a few cases, handlers of fighting birds got sick after giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an injured bird, notes Dr. Suresh Mittal, a Purdue University virology professor working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a vaccine.

The disease also isn't very contagious among humans. There might be one case of a mother contracting the illness from her child, but it isn't clear if she was exposed from the child or a bird. At least 100 million birds likely have been infected, but there are just 121 documented cases of human infection. So the odds of catching flu from a bird are clearly very low.

Then why is everyone

so worried?

The worry isn't today's bird flu but what it might become tomorrow. We already know this flu is deadly, killing about half the people who catch it. The fear is that it will become more contagious, which could happen if it mutates or combines with a human virus.

So when should I start to worry?

So far, only isolated cases of avian flu have been reported. If a cluster of cases emerges, that suggests the virus has changed and has begun to spread by human contact. Once that happens, the virus could show up in the United States within two months, Mittal says.

Should we stop eating chicken and eggs?

It's safe to eat cooked poultry and eggs. The risk of infection appears to come only from live birds, as well as slaughtering and plucking birds and exposure to blood or feces. There are no reported cases of bird flu being transmitted through eggs, but even if the risk exists, the pasteurization process likely would kill the virus, as would cooking. Use common sense and protect cooking surfaces, cutting boards and counters from exposure to raw poultry and raw eggs, which also carry risk for salmonella.

Will a flu shot lower the risk of bird flu?

No. The vaccine developed for the current flu season battles an entirely different variety of flu. Two other flu drugs, amantadine and rimantadine, right now are ineffective against bird flu. Two antiviral drugs -- Tamiflu and Relenza -- might work to reduce symptoms of bird flu and shorten the duration. The prescription drugs must be taken within 48 hours of exposure.

Some panicked consumers are stocking up on the drugs, though the practice is discouraged. Improper use could render the drugs ineffective, plus they can't be used by everyone, says Marc Siegel, associate professor at New York University's School of Medicine and the author of False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear.

Is there an avian flu vaccine?

A potential vaccine is being tested on humans, according to the CDC. The problem is that the version of the bird-flu virus we are worried about hasn't emerged yet, so it isn't known whether the vaccine being developed now will ever work.

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