Bird flu could spark pandemic

Published: 1-May-2004


The bird flu outbreak that has paralysed global poultry markets could spark a related deadly human influenza pandemic, for which preparations must be made, a World Health Organisation (WHO) summit has concluded.

'We have seen how many countries were preparing for terrorism and bioterrorism and we wish to point out that Mother Nature is the biggest bioterrorist of all,' said UK delegate Dr Angus Nicoll.

Summit specialists said that antivirals should be stockpiled to treat human cases of bird flu, which has killed 22 people since its outbreak in December.

The EU Commission has adopted a paper outlining how EU institutions and Member States could work together to counter influenza pandemics. For instance, it proposed the creation of an EU network of reference laboratories for human influenza and a system for establishing outbreak assistance teams.

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