China rules out bird flu in girl's death
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-27 21:39

NERVOUS MONITORING

H5N1 has killed more than 60 people in four countries in Asia and been found among birds in Croatia, Romania, Turkey and Russia, but no human cases have been reported in Europe.

There is no evidence yet that the disease can be transmitted easily among humans, but experts fear it is only a matter of time. China, with its huge numbers of both humans and poultry, often living close together, is seen as a major area of risk.

In Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 41 people, a senior health official said the country would start making the anti-viral Tamiflu drug on its own if faced with a pandemic.

The Asian Development Bank says even a relatively mild pandemic could cost Asia up to $110 billion from the effects of reduced consumption, investment and trade.

Governments around the world are nervously monitoring borders, testing arriving wild birds and clamping down on the import and movement of birds and poultry.

Philippine officials said on Thursday that they had stepped up surveillance of 55 wetlands across the country to try to prevent the entry of bird flu through migratory birds.

South Pacific leaders ended a two-day summit in Port Moresby on Thursday with a plan to pool resources to combat bird flu.

Australia, the largest member of the 16-nation Pacific Forum, is to contribute A$8 million to fight an outbreak of the disease in nations like Papua New Guinea, which shares a border with Indonesia where four people have died of avian flu.

WHO's representative in Sri Lanka said birds migrating from Russia, where the virus has already killed wildfowl, could carry bird flu to Sri Lanka and to India, where officials were testing some birds.

"The virus seems to be becoming increasingly aggressive and pathogenic," said Agostino Borra. "More types of wild and domestic birds are becoming infected."

A senior World Bank official said on Wednesday that officials from all over the globe would meet on November 7-9 in Geneva to discuss setting up a global fund to tackle the threat.

French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said on Wednesday that three tourists who had visited a Thai bird zoo were being tested for bird flu back home on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

But he cautioned against any "dramatization" of the situation. "What we are talking about today in Europe, is about the risk of a disease, of a virus that affects animals," he said.

Britain has said an imported parrot that died of H5N1 might not have been the only bird in quarantine to have had the virus, and others were being tested. The European Union said on Tuesday it was banning the import of captive birds as pets.

WHO says all but six of its 52 European member states have developed plans to fight an influenza pandemic.