ASIA: Asia faced a new health scare yesterday after three Vietnamese people died from "bird flu", but the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there are no signs yet an outbreak that has ravaged the region's poultry industry is spreading between people.
"The evidence to date is that there is no sign of human-to-human transmission," Dr Shigeru Omi of WHO said in a statement.
But he said the consequences would be dire if the virus latched on to the human influenza virus and spread among people, who have little immune protection against the strain.
"The ensuing virus would then be highly pathogenic and transmissible," said Dr Omi, WHO's regional director for the western Pacific.
In a region already alarmed by the return of SARS, health officials say they are worried by the rapid spread of H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, in Japan, South Korean and Vietnam.
The Paris-based world animal disease body OIE said it would send scientists to Asia to investigate the outbreaks, which it said could pose a serious threat to humans under certain conditions. The group would start in Vietnam, where tests confirmed bird flu killed one adult and two children from the Hanoi area. - (Reuters)