How to avoid the bird flu: Don't leave the house

Since Shanghai's first human bird flu death was confirmed on Saturday, the city has "stepped up measures" to prevent the spread of the disease among people (which still hasn't been proven possible):

The city's health department has set up 160 monitoring stations at the fever clinics, where all the fever patients were required to receive treatment.

In addition, all the hospitals were ordered to take measures, such as isolating suspicious human cases and strengthening disinfection, and to give medical workers training on the fatal disease.

Booklets detailing preventative measures have also been handed out to the citizens.

Here's our favorite part (italics added by Shanghaiist):

"There's no need to panic, but it's necessary to pay close attention to personal hygiene and try to avoid crowded places," said Zhang Yongxin, a professor with the Huashan Hospital under the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai.

So, residents of this city of 20 million people, don't panic -- just make sure to stay away from places where there might be lots of people. Sounds easy enough.