U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order Friday authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia. The order is intended to deal with a type of influenza commonly referred to as bird flu. Since January 2004, an estimated 69 people, primarily in Vietnam, have contracted the disease. The fatality rate among those reported to have the disease is about 70 percent. Health officials around the world are trying to monitor the virus closely because some flu pandemics are believed to have originated with birds.
