August 23, 2004

 

 

WHO Warned Bird Flu Will Take Several Years To Contain In Asia

 

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu will take several years to contain, the World Health Organization warned Monday, adding that claims in China that the virus was found in pigs is a worrying new development.

 

The H5N1 virus has killed 27 people in Asia. A recent outbreak of bird flu in Malaysia - the first case in this Southeast Asian country - and flare-ups in Thailand and Vietnam, plus recent claims by Chinese researchers that pigs have the virus indicate that the disease may be entrenched and adapting in parts of Asia.

 

Meanwhile, Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said a doctor and her three children had tested negative for avian flu and would likely be discharged later Monday from the hospital in northern Malaysia where they had been under observation.

 

Three other patients under observation with flu symptoms were discharged Sunday after they showed no sign of avian flu, Chua said. No more patients have been admitted.

 

"I must emphasize that until now that only chickens have avian flu, no humans are infected," Chua said.

 

Malaysia suffered its first outbreak of bird flu last week at a northern village near the border with Thailand. Hundreds of chickens, ducks and wild birds have been killed to stop the disease from spreading.

 

The discovery in pigs, which are genetically similar to humans, intensifies fears that it could mutate into a version that could lead to human-to-human infections. However, it remains unclear whether the pigs were actually infected with H5N1 or simply had traces on their snouts from snuffling around chicken runs.

 

Pigs could conceivably become a new host for the virus to mutate, said Shigeru Omi, the WHO's director for the Western Pacific.

 

"We don't know how wide this virus is spreading among pigs. Is it only several pigs or many pigs?" Omi told a news conference. "This is a new finding, which we are following up very carefully, but it does not mean that it will immediately cause a pandemic."

 

Omi, whose appearance at an anti-tobacco meeting in this northern Malaysian city was overshadowed by fears about bird flu, said the disease will keep popping up because it "is circulating more widely than we expected among poultry."

 

Containing it will take "several years, at least," Omi said.

 

Omi said finding the virus among pigs "is not something we welcome" but that more information would be needed before ringing global alarm bells, Omi said.

 

Asia needs to come up with a communicable disease surveillance system dealing with both animal and human health to respond quickly to diseases - like SARS or H5N1 - that originate with animals, Omi said.