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.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS