World Health Organisation Warning & Attempt to Halt Lethal Pandemic

Europe steps up attempt to halt lethal pandemic August 23, 2005, Charles Bremner in Paris and Roger Boyes in Berlin via Newsbeat1

European worries about bird flu have mounted with evidence that H5N1, the latest strain, found in western China last month, has been moving steadily westwards. It has now reached Siberia and experts are saying that migratory fowl could bring it to Western Europe this autumn.

Discovered in China in 1997, bird flu has infected 112 human beings since 2003, killing 57 in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. So far human beings who contracted the disease got it from handling birds, but the World Health Organisation fears that it might mutate into a human strain that could cause a global pandemic.

[. . . . ] WHY ARE SCIENTISTS WORRIED?

When H5N1 has infected human beings it is exceptionally lethal — of 112 confirmed cases, 57 have died. The concern is that this strain will mutate so that it can be easily passed on from one person to another — if this happens, the result could be a pandemic as serious as the 1918-19 “Spanish flu” that killed between 20 million and 40 million people.

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