Bird flu could threaten Africa’s fight against AIDS

BIRD flu poses a major threat to Africa’s fight against its AIDS epidemic, challenging overburdened healthcare systems and stretching economies already hit by the impact of HIV, the UN’s AIDS chief said yesterday.

UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said a human outbreak of bird flu in Africa where the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was detected in poultry in Nigeria this month could be a massive blow to the campaign to rein in AIDS.

"We are on very thin ice here," Mr Piot said in Dar es Salaam where he was on an inspection mission.