Flu epidemic could follow Sars
2003-05-19 17:29
Geneva - Deadly pandemics, including influenza, could spread around the world in the wake of the deadly SARS outbreak which has killed hundreds of people, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
"There will be more outbreaks like Sars, there's bound to be more (and) the big concern is influenza," said David Heymann, head of WHO's communicable dieases unit.
Heymann was speaking to the press on the sidelines of WHO's annual general meeting, which began earlier on Monday and is expected to be dominated by the ongoing problem of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
There have been nearly 8 000 cases of Sars and the illness has already claimed the lives of over 600 people, mainly in Asia.
But according to WHO's Guenael Rodier the implications for everyone could have been worse had the virus been influenza, which kills more people and which can appear in different strains.
"The good news is that is was not influenza... Influenza has a capacity to spread much much faster," he said.
Extremely virulent forms of influenza have killed millions around the world, including the devastating 1919 Spanish flu pandemic that wiped out as many as 40 million people in Europe and North America at the close of World War I.
- AFX