How bird flu spread from Asia to Europe
How bird flu spread from Asia to Europe
Agence France-Presse, Paris
The discovery of avian influenza in Greece has put the European Union on red alert, with scientists concerned that it could be due to the deadly Asian strain, H5N1, which has killed more than 60 people over the past two years.
They fear that the strain could combine with human flu variants to create a catastrophic pandemic, or mass epidemic, across Europe.
Meanwhile, a bird thought to have died of the disease in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia was to be flown to Britain for further testing, health authorities said on Tuesday, amid fears that H5N1 had spread from nearby Turkey and Romania.
The following is a timeline of how bird flu took hold in Asia before emerging in Europe:
* May 1997: a three-year-old boy becomes the first of six people to die in Hong Kong of a mysterious virus, later identified as H5N1, the first known human deaths from the strain. * Dec. 2003: South Korea confirms an outbreak of the virus and slaughters more than 2.5 million chickens and ducks in a bid to halt the outbreak. A different strain, H7N7, is said to be responsible for the death of a veterinarian in the Netherlands, who visited an infected farm. * Jan. 2004: Vietnam says the suspected number of human deaths has risen to 13 as Taiwan announces an outbreak of different strain of bird flu. Outbreaks are reported in Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, China, Pakistan and Thailand. * Feb. 2004: first cases confirmed in the United States and Canada while in Thailand the virus is detected in a panther, a tiger and domestic cats. * Aug. 2004: Three new deaths confirmed in Vietnam and an outbreak reported in Malaysia. * Jan. 2005: First fatal human case reported in Cambodia. Three more will follow. * March 2005: North Korea officially announces it is affected by the disease. * July 2005: First of three fatalities announced in Indonesia. * Aug. 2005: Confirmation that the disease has spread to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the vast Russian region of Siberia. * Oct. 7, 2005: Ducks in the Danube delta in Romania are reported to be infected. The virus is confirmed as H5N1 eight days later. * Oct. 13, 2005: The infection which has killed thousands of turkeys in north-western Turkey is confirmed as H5N1. * Oct. 17: Discovery of the first case in Greece, on the island of Oinousses, close to the Turkish coast.