Experts meet on bird flu crisis; virus leaps to China

Experts meet on bird flu crisis; virus leaps to China

Agencies, Bangkok

The 10 Asian countries hit by the rapid spread of bird flu which has killed at least eight people and threatens to develop into an epidemic worse than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) promised on Wednesday to fight it together.

Details of what they agreed were sparse as their task loomed even larger now the lethal virus has struck in China, the world's most populous country, the birthplace of deadly SARS and home to a vast poultry industry.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) said the one-day meeting in Bangkok, also attended by European Union (EU) and U.S. officials, was a good start.

"This meeting is the beginning of the process. Quite clearly they're going to start to work together now," said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley, who described some delegates as clearly shaken by the rapid onslaught of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Ministers and officials from the affected nations of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam attended the Bangkok talks. Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains of the virus.

The delegates agreed to implement disease-control measures recommended by the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization on Animal Health and to jointly research diagnostic tools, vaccines and antiviral drugs.

But with a view to Asia's lucrative tourism industry, they said that while there was not evidence of human-to-human transmission "travel restrictions are unnecessary".

The meeting followed warnings from the WHO that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus could combine with a human influenza and cause a pandemic spread between humans that could claim millions of human lives.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao reflected the urgency displayed by the WHO which, with two other international organizations, has called for money and expertise to launch an all-out war on the bird flu virus.

"Any epidemic must be eradicated as soon as it occurs to prevent it from spreading," the Chinese leaders were quoted by state television as saying. "Such an epidemic must be contained in one spot and cut off to prevent it from infecting humans."

China is slaughtering poultry around three farms in three regions where bird flu was confirmed on Tuesday, the latest of the quick fire eruptions across Asia from Pakistan to Japan which the WHO says has no historical precedent.

The Bangkok statement said that was the right thing to do and "rapid culling" was the preferred solution to an outbreak, something Indonesia said it cannot do because it doesn't have the money to compensate farmers.

A virologist working with the WHO in Manila said that more than three out of every four people confirmed to have the deadly H5N1 strain was likely to die.

So far there have been no cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu, the scenario which most concerns the WHO. Scientists believe those infected had direct contact with live poultry or their droppings.

Thailand admitted on Wednesday it had "screwed up" in its handling of the bird flu outbreak which it confirmed last Friday after weeks of denials and said that those responsible would be punished.

One of the worst-hit countries, it said that a third of its provinces were now affected, including the capital Bangkok -- a sprawling megalopolis of 10 million people.

Health officials also reported that a Thai woman suspected of having bird flu had died, bringing the toll to six suspected deaths in addition to two confirmed fatalities.

Indonesia, where a three-year-old boy was being tested on Wednesday to determine if he is the country's first bird flu case, has refused to follow other nations in ordering a mass cull of chickens despite pleas from the WHO.