UN Urges Governments to Prepare for Possible Influenza Pandemic

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A senior U.N. health official warns that governments must better

prepare themselves to fight an influenza pandemic should one break

out. Citing a new World Bank report that says the economic price tag

of an influenza outbreak could top $3 trillion, Nabarro says

international cooperation is vital. From United Nation's headquarters

in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

Avian influenza H5N1 viruses released from infected human cell

Avian influenza H5N1 viruses released from infected human cell

Five years ago avian flu began spreading across Asia, Europe and

Africa killing poultry, wild birds and then humans. Since then, the

U.N. says there have been some 245 human deaths in 15 countries.

U.N. Influenza Coordinator Doctor Nabarro warns that while many

governments have plans in place to fight an influenza outbreak, such

as bird flu, they have not been thoroughly tested and could fail when

an outbreak actually starts.

He said that while the threat of an avian flu pandemic has decreased,

the danger posed by other influenza viruses has not.

" The threat of influenza pandemic is still as it was three or four

years ago, " said Nabarro. " And this is because although we are

very concentrating on one particular bird flu virus that we worry may

be the cause of the next influenza pandemic, the fact is

unfortunately, any influenza virus could cause a pandemic and we just

cannot say for certain when the next pandemic will come, where it will

start, or even how severe it will be. "

Dr. Nabarro (file photo)

Dr. Nabarro (file photo)

Nabarro said the statistics show bird flu to be a much milder threat

now than it was just three years ago.

" When we look at the situation now compared with then, we see that the

number of countries that have been newly infected is greatly reduced,

the number of outbreaks that occur is greatly reduced, and the overall

situation - with the exception of a small number of countries - is

much lighter than it was in 2005, " he said.

Nabarro said the avian flu virus is still entrenched in two countries

- Indonesia and Egypt - and it continues to resurface periodically in

Pakistan, parts of China, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam

and South Korea. He also expressed some concern about Nigeria, which

recently announced its first bird flu outbreak in nearly 10 months,

and Togo, which has also had a recent outbreak.

On Saturday, Egypt is convening an international meeting on both avian

and human influenza. The conference is intended to review pandemic

preparedness and assess what more needs to be done to improve an

international response.