Global bird flu toll rises to 78

The deaths of two more people in China and two in Turkey have brought the global toll from bird flu to 78, the World Health Organisation said today as it urged stepped-up preparation in case the illness turns into a pandemic strain.

Word of the latest two deaths in China – a 10-year-old girl in the south and a 35-year-old man in the east – followed confirmation by WHO of two bird flu fatalities in Turkey as the first outside eastern Asia.