WHO denies exaggerating bird flu pandemic threat

GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) denied today it was exaggerating the risk of a human influenza pandemic, while China reported a 10th person had been diagnosed with the potentially fatal bird flu virus.

A 29-year-old woman from southwest China was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus, the health ministry said. She was in critical condition in hospital.

The woman, surnamed Cao, ran a shop in a farm goods market in Jinhua Town in Sichuan Province. Six of the 10 known victims of bird flu in China have died.

The WHO has confirmed bird flu as the cause of death of a young brother and sister in Indonesia this month, taking the death toll to at least 82 since the virus reemerged in late 2003.

Victims contract the virus through close contact with sick birds but there are fears it could mutate into a form that can pass easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic.

WHO director-general Lee Jong-Wook said the threat of a pandemic was a genuine one.

"Concern has been expressed that we are overplaying this threat. We are not," Lee said in an opening speech to the WHO's executive board, holding a week-long meeting in Geneva.

"We can only reduce the devastating human and economic impact of a pandemic if we all take the threat seriously now and prepare thoroughly. This is a global problem," he said.

The United Nations agency has predicted between two and 7.4 million people could die if a pandemic sweeps the world.

Wealthy donor nations last week pledged US$1.9 billion ($2.79 billion) to fight bird flu at a conference in Beijing. The money will be spent on measures to eradicate a virus which is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.

Turkey recently became the sixth country to report human cases of bird flu, taking it to the gates of Europe and the Middle East.

Turkey has reported 21 cases of bird flu, including the deaths of four children, but the WHO says that human cases appear to be winding down there following mass poultry culling and public education campaigns.

WHO experts will help nearby countries deemed "at risk" to assess the situation. These include Syria, Iran, Iraq, as well as Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Unlike in East Asia -- where outbreaks had been detected in poultry well ahead of human cases -- the "unique feature" in Turkey had been "almost no prior warning of infection in poultry", said Lee, a South Korean doctor.

"The Turkey experience demonstrates the dangers poised by avian influenza in birds and the vital importance of surveillance and effective early warning systems," he added.

"A pandemic could arise with little or no warning from the animal side."

- REUTERS