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U.N.
health chief sounds alarm on bird flu
 By
Paul Eckert
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Avian flu will mutate and become
transmissible by humans and the world has no time to waste to stop it becoming a
pandemic, the head of the U.N. World Health Organization said on Thursday.
Lee Jong-wook, a South Korean doctor, delivered his stark warning as the United
States worked to rally states behind a new U.S. plan to fight the disease, which
has already killed more than 60 people in Asia and spread to Russia and Europe.
 "Human
influenza is coming, we know that, and no government, no leaders can afford to
be caught off-guard," Lee said.
"We must pounce on human pandemic outbreaks with all medicines at our disposal
and at the earliest possible moment," he told a news conference in New York.
"When the pandemic starts, it is
simply too late."
U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a plan at the United Nations on Wednesday
under which countries and international agencies would pool resources and
expertise to fight bird flu.
His International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza reflects growing
concern that avian flu could becomes a human pandemic, a threat Bush said the
world must not allow.
WORSE RISK THAN HIV
Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the
risk of bird flu was even worse than HIV/AIDS. He urged nations to cooperate
fully and not to hide knowledge of the disease when it struck.
"The consequences for the global economy could be massive," Natsios told a small
group of reporters. "Without international and national responses we will not
stop the disease."
Most of the people killed in Asia since 2003 caught the virus from infected
birds. Health experts say the greatest worry is that the highly pathogenic
strain of the disease known as H5N1 could mutate and become transmissible
between people.
Lee said H5N1 "will acquire this capability -- it's just an issue of timing."
Countries far from heavily hit Southeast Asian states would not be safe because
the disease was spreading through migratory wildfowl, Lee added.
He urged states like Japan,
Switzerland and France with stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to make medicines
available for international emergencies.
Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global
Affairs, said the United States would convene a senior officials meeting in
Washington soon to coordinate policy. Canada will host a global health ministers
in the coming weeks to support the U.S. initiative, she said.
Partner countries and agencies include Argentina, Australia, Britain, Canada,
China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Russia, as well as WHO, the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organization and UNICEF, Dobriansky said. |
