WHO: Bird Flu Bigger Challenge Than AIDS

[Guest guest]

WHO: Bird Flu Bigger Challenge Than AIDS By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS,

Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 6, 12:44 PM ET

GENEVA - 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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