There's been an outbreak of awareness on avian flu.

Last week, "Nightline" featured "the pandemic waiting to happen in a nation unprepared." This month's National Geographic asks, "The Next Killer Flu: Can We Stop It?" More important, the halls of Washington are buzzing with talk of H5N1, the flu strain rampaging through Asia's bird population. It has killed 60 of 116 humans infected.

"I am concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world," President Bush said at a news conference Tuesday. He's wisely studying the 1918 pandemic, fearful of repeating disastrous policy choices made then.

The Senate, led by Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, voted last week to provide $4 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stockpile medication, improve vaccine research and manufacturing capacity, and to help states and municipalities plan. The House should second the action.

Also this week, the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release a long-awaited national pandemic management plan, before Secretary Michael Leavitt leaves on a tour of Asian countries vulnerable to outbreak.

These are overdue steps to brace the United States for a virulent global flu, which medical experts believe is inevitable. They don't know when or how bad a pandemic it might be, but historical cycles say one is coming.

Epidemiologists are tracking the H5N1 virus in Asia, which has been killing off poultry and migratory birds since 2003. It spread to Russia last summer.

So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, but experts fear the virus will mutate to a form that spreads easily among humans. That's when it gets dangerous. In this age of global air travel, a cough, sneeze or handshake could send it quickly around the world. Initially, there would be little way to stop it: Humans have virtually no immunity.

Unlike most influenzas, which most often attack the very young and the very old, healthy adults would be the most vulnerable. That means huge disruptions in workforces and national economies.

The nonprofit Trust for America's Health predicts a half-million deaths and at least 2 million hospitalizations if a moderately severe pandemic strikes the United States.

Tha"s why this nation needs a comprehensive plan delineating roles for federal, state and local governments. Only a coordinated effort will head off panic, result in proper care of the sick, and contain illness. Next week, the Senate should take up proposals from Harry Reid, D-Nev., Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., to make these plans more effective.

The president's idea Tuesday to put the military in charge of quarantines was premature, although quarantines may eventually be needed. He was right, however, to question the world's capacity to manufacture vaccines. With current technology and factories, it would take six to nine months after identifying a virus to produce a vaccine. Many people would die waiting.

Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the consequences of a nation blindsided by emergency. A flu pandemic would, by definition, be a dozen Katrinas at once. Scientists have issued their warnings. Congress and the president are right to listen and prepare.