December 7, 2005

More bird flu outbreaks in Asia's winter season, WHO says

The WHO said Tuesday Asia would likely suffer more bird flu outbreaks and human infections in the coming weeks because the virus typically spreads the greatest in winter.

Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani, WHO's Asia Pacific adviser for communicable diseases, said experience in the past two years has shown the H5N1 virus is most active at this time of the year, and would likely peak in January and February.

"It looks like we are seeing a similar pattern this year," Oshitani said at a seminar in Singapore. "I think we should expect more outbreaks in the next few weeks, and there could be some more human cases."

Oshitani also said it was harder to contain the spread of the virus this year than it had been last year because many of the recent outbreaks have occurred in backyard farms which are harder to monitor compared to the large-scale farms which fell victim to the virus in 2004.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia since 2003 and jumped to humans, killing at least 68, most of them in Vietnam. Experts have warned that it could mutate into a form easily passed between people and spark a pandemic that could kill millions around the world.

Most of the human cases in Asia have been traced to contact with sick birds.

The deadly strain has also been recorded in birds in Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Ukraine and Russia. Singapore has so far reported no infections among birds or humans of the H5N1 strain.