Flu pandemic may kill 7m
2005-01-11 21:38
Johannesburg - The World Health Organisation has warned that up to seven million people could die in an international flu pandemic caused by bird flu "in the very near future".
At a regional meeting in Thailand the organisation said at least 25% of the world's population would fall ill and billions would be affected.
In 2004 32 people died of bird flu in Thailand and Vietnam.
In a statement Medinfo's doctor Andrew Jamieson said the impending health disaster would result from the emergence of a completely new flu strain against which humans have no immunity.
He said the WHO had urged all countries to guard against a possible pandemic and to take stock of their inventories of antiviral treatments.
Jamieson said two US companies planned to test experimental bird flu vaccines early in 2005 and expected to have a vaccine for humans by 2007.
Millions of poultry were slaughtered in Vietnam and Thailand.
The WHO announced it would help Vietnam identify the H5N1 virus after two flu-related deaths during the first week of January.
- SAPA