Global fight to halt Bird Flu

The World Health Organization (WHO) and two other agencies have appealed for funds and expert advice to help stop the threat to humans and agriculture posed by the bird flu. The other two agencies are the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), another U.N. agency, and the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health. They have said that the human and animal pandemic must be averted.The bird flu virus has crossed into humans in Vietnam and Thailand, killing at least eight people, but no person-to-person transmission has been detected. Tests have confirmed another human case of bird flu in Vietnam and there may be many more cases to come, according to the WHO regional director. The outbreak among poultry flocks has spread to Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Laos, leading to the slaughter of millions of chickens. The three international agencies appealed to donors to provide funds and technical assistance to fight bird flu. WHO officials gave no amount for the funds needed, but said that technical aid being sought included diagnostic kits as well as protective gear for workers involved in culling. The WHO has said it is working flat out with drug companies to develop a vaccine, but it could still take over six months. It was holding talks with major vaccine manufacturers and licensing agencies to discuss coordinating clinical trials.

The Geneva-based agency says that bird flu could set off an epidemic worse than SARS. WHO has recommended that people travelling to areas with outbreaks of bird flu in poultry should avoid contact with live animal markets and poultry farms. Farmers in affected areas urgently need to kill infected and exposed animals and require support to compensate for such losses. The WHO has also said that that all food from poultry, including eggs, need to be thoroughly cooked, as influenza viruses are destroyed by heat.