Who expert: Avian flu pandemic imminent [View All]

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) - The world is on the verge of a deadly pandemic stemming from avian flu and governments need to start drafting emergency plans for the disease, a top international health official warned Wednesday.

Dr. Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organization's Western Pacific regional director, told the opening of a three-day conference on avian flu health agencies around the world need to better co-ordinate their fight against the virus. "We at WHO believe that the world is now in the gravest possible danger of a pandemic," Omi said.

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Animal health officials said there is still time to stop the disease from developing into a pandemic, by controlling transmission at the source.

"This means addressing the transmission of the virus where the disease occurs, in poultry, specifically free-range chickens and wetland dwelling ducks and thus curbing the disease occurrence in the region before it spreads to other parts of the world," said Dr. Samuel Jutzi, of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization.

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