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Bird flu tightens grip on Asia
04/07/2005 07:36 - (SA)
Kuala Lumpur - Health and animal experts on Monday called for mass vaccination of poultry to prevent bird flu from becoming a human pandemic, saying the virus has tightened its grip on Asia and is capable of springing major surprises.
The call was issued at the start of a three-day UN conference on the bird flu virus, which has killed 55 people in Asia this year.
The virus currently appears to spread only by close association of humans and poultry. But medical experts fear it could mutate into a form which can easily pass among people, triggering a global pandemic.
"The virus has behaved in ways that suggests it remains as unstable, unpredictable and versatile as ever," said Dr Shigeru Omi of the World Health Organisation.
Constant alert
"Judging by its performance today we need to be on constant alert for surprises," he said at the opening of the conference.
The meeting is co-organised by the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym OIE.
Omi said avian influenza poses the threat of a pandemic, especially after re-emerging in China where the virus killed 6 000 wild migratory birds last month in the remote Qinghai province.
Vietnam is now "chronically infected" with seven new human cases reported last month alone, while Cambodia and possibly Indonesia have reported their first human cases, he said in his opening speech.
Efficient control
The prevention of human pandemic relies on efficient control of infection in animals, said Joseph Domenech, the FAO's chief veterinary officer, in his speech.
The only way to control it is by imposing mass vaccination of poultry and speeding up efforts to develop new poultry vaccines, he said.
"Avian influenza is not just an Asian problem. No poultry producing country is safe from the occurrence of the avian influenza as long as there are pockets of infections in Asia," Domenech said.
- AP
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