Well, it's ultimately a matter of when "the big one" strikes, hopefully far into the future so governments are better prepared. At least the governments around the world aren't totally complacent today. :-/
And it didn't start in Europe but actually Asia. I think it was 2-3 years ago when the first cases hit in China and southeast Asia. Since it was a bird flu, the cases occurred in populations that live in close contact with poultry birds. So far the virus only spreads via bird-to-human contact, the worry of course is that someday the virus will mutate to spread directly from human to human.
At least our medical technology is much better than what it was like back in 1918, which was the previous large-scale pandemic that killed millions worldwide. (There were also one or two minor ones in the 40s and 60s I think, or something like that.)
