Posted on 09/15/2005 2:37:19 PM PDT by ex-Texan
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Avian flu will mutate and become transmissible by humans and the world has no time to lose to stop it becoming a pandemic, the head of the U.N. World Health Organization said on Thursday.
Lee Jong-wook, a South Korean doctor, delivered his stark warning as the United States worked to rally states behind a new U.S. plan to fight the disease, which has already killed more than 60 people in Asia and spread to Russia and Europe.
"Human influenza is coming, we know that, and no government, no leaders can afford to be caught off-guard," Lee said.
"We must pounce on human pandemic outbreaks with all medicines at our disposal and at the earliest possible moment," he told a news conference in New York.
"When the pandemic starts, it is simply too late."
U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a plan at the United Nations on Wednesday under which countries and international agencies would pool resources and expertise to fight bird flu.
His International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza reflects growing concern that avian flu could becomes a human pandemic, a threat Bush said the world must not allow.
Most of the people killed in Asia since 2003 caught the virus from infected birds. Health experts say the greatest worry is that the highly pathogenic strain of the disease known as H5N1 could mutate and become transmissible between people.
Lee said H5N1 "will acquire this capability -- it's just an issue of timing." Countries far from heavily hit Southeast Asian states would not be safe because the disease was spreading through migratory wildfowl, Lee added.
He urged states like Japan, Switzerland and France with stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to make medicines available for international emergencies.
Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, said the United States would convene a senior officials meeting in Washington soon to coordinate policy. Canada will host a global health ministers in the coming weeks to support the U.S. initiative, she said.
Partner countries and agencies include Argentina, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Russia, as well as WHO, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF, Dobriansky said.
Is Kofi's son now an expert on "Bird Flu" and can we expect to be plucked againor is this the very serious strain of "Byrd Flu" which as we all know could cause the entire US to become concave and cause all jobs and wealth to slide into West Virginia.That is a seris flu!!!
Ok -- thanks for setting me straight.
According to this article 55%.
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Investigation/story?id=1130392&page=1
Cytokine Storm?
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