WHO warns signs point to global influenza outbreak
WHO warns signs point to global influenza outbreak
Agencies, Geneva
Indonesia's first human bird flu case, coupled with more birds dying elsewhere including Russia, are signs a long-dreaded global influenza pandemic may be approaching, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
Health officials fear the virus will mutate and mix with human influenza, creating a deadly pandemic strain that becomes easily transmissible and could kill millions of people.
The world could at any time be faced with a massive flu outbreak like those in 1918 or 1968 that killed tens of millions of people, the WHO warned on Friday, urging countries to be prepared.
"History has told us that no one can stop a pandemic. The question is: when is it going to happen?" WHO spokeswoman Margaret Chan told reporters.
"I don't think anybody has the answer to it. We have to be on the lookout for any time, any day," she added.
Deadly avian influenza, which has killed 55 people in Asia since resurfacing in 2003, has the potential to become a major human pandemic if the virus were to mutate and allow human-to- human transmission, Chan said.
The HN51 strain of bird flu, which has killed hundreds of thousands of birds, constitutes one of several "warnings from nature" -- the first since 1968, according to Chan, Hong Kong's director of health from 1994 to 2003.
"We collectively, particularly national authorities, have to take a very conscientious decision: if you are given early signals and if you are not prepared, you have a very difficult case to answer if indeed it happens," she said.
"Our experience is that if you are prepared for a pandemic, you get less impact in terms of mortality, morbidity, social and economic disruption."
Chan admitted that preparation for a possible flu pandemic could divert resources from other health emergencies like the fight against AIDS or polio, but said such measures would improve the tracking of life-threatening diseases.
But Chan said there had been no known sustained human to human transmission of the deadly virus, but called for stepping up disease surveillance among poultry and humans worldwide.
Indonesia this week confirmed its first death from the virus.
An Indonesian government official was confirmed as having died of the H5N1 bird flu virus, but results of laboratory tests on his two young daughters who also died are still awaited.
"This is more evidence for us to be concerned about developments in the region," Chan told a news briefing.
"This is perhaps the only time since 1968, which was the last pandemic, that we are getting signs, symptoms and warnings from nature ... More and more birds are dying in different parts of the world -- this is the kind of signals, and early warnings that we are referring to."
Russia this week said it had discovered a disease in poultry in a remote village in Siberia, its first suspected case of bird flu. Around 300 birds died and specimens are being analyzed.
Mixed poultry trading -- where ducks, geese, chickens and sometimes pigeons are sold side-by-side at market -- can be an "enabling environment for the virus to mutate", Chan said.
Recommended measures include separating poultry, vaccination of poultry, and other biosecurity measures on farms, she said.
"Our experience is that if you are prepared for a pandemic you get less impact in terms of mortality and morbidity and social and economic disruption," she said.
Chan also said that the WHO, a United Nations agency, was still pressing China to allow international laboratories to examine specimens from birds in Qinghai, where the H5N1 virus has killed more than 5,000 birds from five species.
The WHO is urging China to test the other 184 species in the area, fearing birds which appear healthy could also spread the disease. This would help understand the evolution of the virus and inform public health decisions, according to Chan.