Reuters published a good article on the current situation in the region. Here are a few bits:
Since February, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar have culled hundreds of thousands of chickens and shut poultry farms, yet the virus has kept spreading to new areas.
Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia, where hundreds of millions in the countryside live with their livestock.
[...] "Has any disease which has come in the last 50 years into India gone away?" said H.K. Pradhan, head of India's only animal diseases laboratory that carries out tests for bird flu.
Worse still is a lack of laboratories, trained veterinary personnel and ignorance about the disease.
Officials admit they face an uphill battle against bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic.
In a region where many have little or no access to stretched health services, a mutated strain could spread rapidly among humans, leaving countless numbers of people to fend for themselves.
While officials might feel a sense of crisis, the reaction of many ordinary people is slowly turning from panic to cautious resignation.
In a region of more than 1.3 billion people, bird flu is just one of many threats they face as they try to overcome poverty, the danger of other illnesses, militancy and natural disasters.