bird flu update

well earlier last year now, I was complacent about the bird flu epidemic , and the publicity started dying down as soon as the media worked out that 60 deaths in 9 months didnt constitute a crisis .
Now however, things are looking a tad worse.
With about 5 deaths in about the same number of days in a relatively localised area of Turkey - something has changed ....
Either the virus is now easier to get passed on from fowl to human , or else it's finally maanaged to go direct from human- human ?
I'm not a medical guy, but to my simple mind, if its 'just' easier to get from fowl-human , then this MUST mean that the virus is nearer to becoming a human pathogen and so MUST ? be now slightly possible to go direct human-human , or if not ,its a gnat's crotchet away from it [as they say]
Let's hope it stays that way , or if not that it becomes seriously less lethal in it's end form .
On an end note : virus' dont 'stay that way'
Im sorta glad I live in the countryside now [albeit with 6 hens next door]
Why is it that the media blew it up out of all proportion last year , and now are reporting it, but downplaying it ? It smacks of government guidelines somehow ...