January 25, 2006

WHO team tours Indonesian markets to contain bird flu
 

World Health Organization (WHO) officials visited markets in Indonesia's teeming capital Wednesday to try to find ways to contain the bird flu virus that has killed at least 80 people - most of them in Asia.

Peter Karim Ben Embarek, from WHO's headquarters in Geneva, said members of the team would brief the government next week about the need to improve hygiene at markets in order to reduce exposure of the virus to humans.

He also recommended improved crowd management and separating species of animals.

"We want to make the life of (the) bird flu virus more difficult," said Alexander von Hildebrand, WHO's regional adviser, after the team toured a live bird market in east Jakarta that was packed with chickens, ducks, bats and doves.

Bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks since it started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, also jumping to humans.

Almost all the deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.