Health, food and animal experts plan to hammer out a strategy this week to ensure that the bird flu virus does not spread from humans to humans -- a possibility that has raised fears of an influenza pandemic.
The avian flu virus, which has killed 55 people in Asia this year, currently appears to spread only by close contact between humans and poultry. But medical experts fear the virus could mutate into a form which can easily pass between people, triggering a global pandemic.
"The virus has yet to develop efficient human-to-human transmission and there is still time for action," said a statement jointly issued yesterday by three UN organizations set to hold a three-day conference of experts starting today in Kuala Lumpur.
There is an "urgent need to address the root cause of the problem -- the interaction between humans and the production, distribution, processing and marketing of animals for food," the statement said.
The conference will be attended by senior representatives and experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and the World Health Organization.
"The widespread outbreaks of avian influenza in birds in Asia and the demonstrated capacity of the avian influenza H5N1 strain to infect and kill humans have increased the risk of an influenza pandemic," the statement said.
Any flu strain could mutate to cause a pandemic. But Asia's bird flu -- particularly the H5N1 strain -- is of particular concern because people's immune systems have never had to battle it.
The statement said the meeting's objectives include identifying practices in the production and marketing of live animals in Asia that might endanger human health.
The experts will also assess how effectively current regulations on the production and marketing of live animals for food minimize the risk to humans.
Another objective is to provide practical guidelines on how to improve regulatory controls on the production and marketing of live animals for food.
Delegates will also try to identify effective methods to increase people's awareness about high-risk behavior, the statement said.
The WHO warned last week that rare wild birds, now nesting in China's remote Qinghai Province, could carry the disease when they migrate south this summer. It said 5,000 birds had died as of last week, and continued to die at a rate of about 20 a day.
The WHO has asked China to test birds in the area to determine if any species were infected with the virus but not showing symptoms. Beijing said it would do so with international help.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of