WHO: Bird Flu bigger challenge than AIDS

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WHO: Bird Flu Bigger Challenge Than AIDS By ALEXANDER

G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 9 minutes ago

The lethal strain of bird flu poses a greater

challenge to the world than any infectious disease,

including AIDS, and has cost 300 million farmers more

than $10 billion in its spread through poultry around

the world, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Scientists also are increasingly worried that the H5N1

strain could mutate into a form easily passed between

humans, triggering a global pandemic. It already is

unprecedented as an animal illness in its rapid

expansion.

Since February, the virus has spread to birds in 17

countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East,

said the WHO's Dr. Margaret Chan, citing U.N. Food and

Agriculture Organization estimates of the toll on

farmers.

" Concern has mounted progressively, and events in

recent weeks justify that concern, " Chan, who is

leading WHO's efforts against bird flu, told a meeting

in Geneva on global efforts to prepare for the

possibility of the flu mutating into a form easily

transmitted among humans.

U.S. health officials said Monday they have authorized

the development of a second vaccine to combat the

deadly virus, which already is believed to be

changing.

The U.S. government has several million doses of a

first bird flu vaccine based on a sample of virus

taken from Vietnam in 2004. The virus is believed to

have mutated since then, health officials said.

" In order to be prepared, we need to continue to

develop new vaccines, " Health and Human Services

Secretary Mike Leavitt said Monday at an immunization

conference.

In Austria, state authorities said Monday that three

cats have tested positive for the deadly strain of

bird flu in the country's first reported case of the

disease spreading to an animal other than a bird.

The cats had been living at an animal shelter where

the disease already was detected in chickens,

authorities said.

Poland reported its first outbreak of the disease,

saying Monday that laboratory tests confirmed that two

wild swans had died of the lethal strain.

Chan told more than 30 experts in Geneva that the

agency's top priority was to keep the deadly H5N1

strain of bird flu from mutating.

" Should this effort fail, we want to ensure that

measures are in place to mitigate the high levels of

morbidity, mortality and social and economic

disruption that a pandemic can bring to this world, "

she said.

WHO says 175 people are confirmed to have caught bird

flu, and 95 of them have died.

" No one can say when this will end, " Chan said.

Global influenza pandemics — as opposed to annual

recurrences of seasonal flu — tend to strike

periodically. In the 20th century, there were

pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

WHO said bird flu could potentially cause more deaths

than those from the global flu pandemics. Because the

H5N1 virus is airborne, it is easier to transmit and

much more contagious than HIV/AIDS, WHO officials

said.

Dr. Mike , director of epidemic and pandemic alert

and response at WHO, said, " We truly feel that this

present threat and any other threat like it is likely

to stretch our global systems to the point of

collapse. "

This is the first time world health authorities have

tried to stop a global influenza pandemic before it

begins. Chan referred to the spread of severe acute

respiratory syndrome, or SARS, as evidence of " how

much the world has changed. "

SARS infected 8,000 people, killing 800 of them.

" In a globalized economy, with high volume of

international travel, vulnerability to new disease

threats is universal, " she said. " It is the same for

the rich and for the poor. "

WHO spokeswoman Cheng said experts hope to

isolate areas where there is a bird flu outbreak and

establish agreements allowing international health

authorities to respond quickly, testing viruses and

implementing containment measures.

Public health measures to quarantine areas, isolate

people or help give antiviral medicine to those

infected with bird flu also are on the agenda of the

meeting, which ends Wednesday.

Even if a pandemic cannot be stopped, WHO says such

measures can buy time for health authorities to

improve their response strategies and stave off the

disease until a pandemic vaccine can be produced.

Meanwhile, a top animal health official with the

Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said

developed countries had responded slowly to bird flu,

failing to control the disease in Asia and not doing

enough to prepare poor countries, particularly in

Africa, for its spread.

" In 2004 we said it will be an international crisis if

we don't stop it in Asia, and this is exactly what is

happening two years later, " said ph Domenech, head

of FAO's Animal Health Service.

" We were asking for emergency funds and they never

came. We are constantly late. "

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