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WHO warns of bird flu’s spread

Infection Control Monitor, January 30, 2004

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned countries to guard against the spread of Asian bird flu, which has already killed eight people in 10 Asian countries, Reuters reports.

The flu made its move into China on January 27 and a second boy in Thailand died of the disease, causing the WHO to call for funding and experts to fight a war against the illness.

China's Xinhua news agency said the H5N1 strain of the bird flu, which can spread to humans, had killed ducks in the southern province of Guanxi. Veterinarians suspect the bird flu caused the deaths of chickens at a farm in the central province of Hubei and of ducks at a farm in the province of Hunan.

Japan has banned imports of chicken from China and Thailand.

So far, there is no evidence of the illness passing from human to human and generating a new strain that could cause a pandemic, but the WHO and other organizations are urging caution because of the possibility of such transmission.

In addition to the deaths of the two boys in Thailand, there have been six confirmed deaths from bird flu in Vietnam, five of them children.

The WHO and the Food and Agricultural Organization say the only way to combat the spread of bird flu is to kill infected poultry and all other birds within three miles of an outbreak.

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