Urgent bird flu summit in Rome ( 2004-02-04 09:05) (Agencies)
Health experts are meeting in Rome for an
emergency bird flu summit as deaths from the disease mount in Asia and fears
rise the illness may have reached Europe.
Health authorities in Germany said they were testing two women for possible
bird flu infection.
A worker checks chickens at Indonesia's
biggest slaughterhouse in the outskirts of Jakarta, February 3, 2004. The
H5N1 bird flu virus strain, which can be deadly to humans, has been
confirmed in Indonesian chickens, a government official said on Tuesday,
but there have been no cases yet found in people.
[Reuters]
One of the women fell ill after
returning from Thailand, but officials say it is unlikely they have the disease.
Meanwhile, health officials in Thailand said 102 people with flu-like
symptoms were being "examined closely" -- up from 81 a day earlier. They have
yet to be moved into the suspected case category.
Bird flu has already killed 13 people in Asia. A 6-year-old boy in Thailand,
a teenage boy in Viet Nam and a 58-year-old woman who raised chickens in
Thailand are the latest confirmed deaths.
The latest Thai deaths mean that all of those in the country with confirmed
cases of the illness have died. Officials are awaiting test results on 18
suspected cases, including 11 people who have died.
While the virus has spread to 10 nations, all human deaths have been in Viet
Nam and Thailand, and most of the infections have come from direct contact with
sick birds.
However, the World Health Organization says its investigation has been
inconclusive in the case of a Vietnamese family, and that human-to-human
transmission could not be ruled out.
Two sisters died from bird flu in Viet Nam, and the WHO said it was
investigating whether they caught the respiratory illness from their brother in
what could be the first instance of humans transmitting the disease in the
current outbreak.
While limited transmission of the virus between humans is not considered a
serious danger, experts fear the virus might mutate into a form that passes
easily between people
Far from over
For its part, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, which is hosting
the Rome meeting, has warned that the bird flu outbreak is far from over.
"Bird flu remains a serious public and animal health threat and continues to
spread," The Associated Press quoted the FAO's He Changchui as saying.
"The eruption of new infection cases in Thailand, China and Viet Nam shows
that the disease is far from being under control."
Experts meeting in Rome include high-level veterinary officials from stricken
countries and representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the FAO said.
The U.N. World Health Organization and the World Animal Health Organization
are also participating.
The experts are meeting behind closed doors, with the results of their
discussions set to be announced Thursday.
While FAO officials said they believe the disease is
spreading within Thailand and Viet Nam.
On Tuesday, the Chinese government said it has found bird flu in one province
and is looking at the possibility of flu in two others.
A previously suspected case of bird flu in poultry China's Guangdong province
has been confirmed, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced.
The ministry said suspected cases were under investigation in two new
provinces -- Gansu and Shaanxi.
New suspected outbreaks also were reported in Hubei, Hunan and Anhui
provinces, where cases already have been confirmed or suspected.
The ministry said the strain of the virus identified in Guangdong was the
H5N1 strain -- the more deadly variety -- and that no humans had been infected.
The report raises to four the number of confirmed cases in China, AP said.
Dwindling chances
The WHO has urged China to take swifter action against bird flu, warning that
its chances to contain the disease may be dwindling.
WHO's Beijing spokesman Roy Wadia told CNN that WHO and Chinese officials
must meet to develop an urgent national plan for combating the disease.
Beijing has closed poultry markets and processing factories in some bird
flu-affected areas.
In addition to Viet Nam, Thailand and China, bird flu has been discovered in
Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia. A different strain
of bird flu has been detected in Taiwan.
