Conference experts warn of bird flu epidemic

Health and animal experts warned bird flu could trigger the next global pandemic as they opened a three-day conference today in Vietnam on how to control what has been deemed the world’s biggest health risk.

Scientists and representatives from more than two dozen countries focused on long-term strategies for eradicating the disease as they met in southern Ho Chi Minh City, near the Mekong Delta where the latest outbreaks emerged this year.

The virus, which devastated the region’s poultry industry last year as it swept through nearly a dozen countries, also has killed 45 people – 32 Vietnamese, 12 Thais and one Cambodian.

Experts have repeatedly warned that the H5N1 bird flu virus could become far deadlier still if it mutates into a form that can be easily transmitted between humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Dr Julie Gerberding, head of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said earlier this week that bird flu posed the biggest health threat to the world.

“We are seeing a highly pathogenic strain of influenza virus emerge to an extraordinary proportion across the entire western component of Asia,” she said.

“The reason this is so ominous is because of the evolution of flu…. You may see the emergence of a new strain to which the human population has no immunity.”

The major pandemics of the past century – the 1918-19 Spanish flu, the 1957 Asian flu and 1968 Hong Kong flu – killed about than 50 million people.

There is no vaccine for the H5N1 virus, but scientists in the United States, Britain and Vietnam are researching one.

Gerberding said there is evidence the virus is changing rapidly and there is a “very high threat” that bird flu will eventually acquire the ability to be easily spread among people. Her agency is preparing for a possible pandemic next year.

Vietnam, which has had 12 deaths this year alone, is hosting the conference, organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Organisation for Animal Health. The World Health Organisation as well as donor nations will also attend.

Conference delegates are expected to discuss mass vaccinations, flu research, farm hygiene, animal husbandry practices and how to improve co-ordination between animal health and human health agencies.