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Pandemic flu still a substantial threat

Infection Control Monitor, May 9, 2008

Although the threat of an influenza pandemic may have dropped off some people’s radar screens, health experts said May 6 that the world still faces a substantial threat of such an event and countries need to speed up preparations for a global outbreak.

The warning came at a meeting in Geneva of about 150 health experts from governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other agencies to update WHO’s pandemic influenza preparedness guidance, reported the Associated Press (AP).

“We can’t delude ourselves. The threat of a pandemic influenza has not diminished,” the AP quoted Keiji Fukuda, coordinator for the WHO’s Global Influenza Program. WHO says 382 people have been infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus since 2003—when the virus began killing Asian poultry stocks—and 241 of them have died.

Click here to read more about WHO’s plans to update its preparedness guidance in light of the development of H5N1 vaccines and greater experience treating cases of bird flu. WHO expects to publish revised guidelines by the end of 2008.

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