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Experts: Global pandemic task force needed

Infection Control Monitor, May 27, 2005

Many of the world's leaders in infectious disease research are calling for an immediate and permanent global task force to prepare for what some experts call an inevitable outbreak of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus.

Such an outbreak could kill eight million people, and hospitalize 20 million more, according to the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Using insight from experts around the globe, the center published a report with recommendations on how to prepare for a pandemic.

The global task force should include health agencies and researchers from many different disciplines, and should offer advance strategies and policy advice, according to the report.

If the H5N1 virus mutates so that it passes easily between humans, the domino effect will be fast-moving and devastating, experts say.

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