| ■ Bird Flu Pandemic Could Kill Millions: WHO | 07.04.27 |
| A billion people could be infected and two million to seven million could die if there's a worldwide bird flu pandemic, says the World Health Organization (WHO). The estimates were arrived at from models based on previous flu epidemics, Jean-Marc Olive, the WHO's representative for the Philippines, said Tuesday at a forum in Manila organized by the Australian embassy. Agence France Presse reported that Olive also said even "a modest pandemic lasting over one year might cause losses as high as three percent of Asia's GDP (gross domestic product) and 0.5 percent of the world GDP." Mass culls of infected poultry flocks may help avert a human pandemic, Olive said. He also recommended that countries improve preventive and surveillance measures, as well as make preparations for an outbreak, such as stockpiling anti-viral drugs, AFP reported. Since 2003, the H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 172 people, mostly in Southeast Asia. Experts fear that the virus could cause a pandemic if it mutates into a form that's easily transmitted between humans. |