Fergie's Tech Blog

H5N1 Update: Bird flu outbreaks expected in more countries

Shaoni Bhattacharya writes in NewScientist:

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is likely to spread to more and more countries, a World Health Organization official warned on Monday.

The strain, which has killed over 60 people in southeast Asia, appears to have travelled extensively in the latter half of 2005. It has affected birds in China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan and most recently reached Europe.

“There is no question that we will expect further outbreaks of the avian disease in different countries,” says Michael Ryan, the WHO’s director of the department of epidemic and pandemic alert and response, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Tests by the European Union reference laboratory for flu in Weybridge, UK, confirmed on Saturday that the virus affecting birds in Romania was the H5N1 strain, the day after coming to the same conclusion about sick turkeys in Turkey.

posted by Fergie @ 10/17/2005 11:07:00 AM