Dutch bird flu came to brink of human catastrophe

THE outbreak of avian influenza in Holland last year came to the brink of being a tragic human catastrophe of huge proportions, revealed David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection.

He was addressing the Conference on Infectious Disease in the Netherlands.

Human-to-human transmission of the bird disease virus resulted in 80 human cases of avian influenza, one of which was fatal.