Scientists fear bird flu pandemic
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Malcolm RitterAssociated Press
New York - An outbreak of bird flu among migratory waterfowl in China suggests the disease - which could trigger a dangerous flu among people - may be poised to spread to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe, scientists warn.
If the migrating birds carry the H5N1 flu virus beyond its current stronghold in southeast Asia, it could devastate poultry farms and raise the risk of a deadly flu pandemic in people, experts said.
"They're going to spread this thing further and further across central Asia and Europe and who knows where," said Robert Webster of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., an author of a report released online Wednesday by the journal Nature. Another report, released by the journal Science, said the finding of the H5N1 infection in migrant birds at Qinghai Lake in western China "indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat."
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Malcolm RitterAssociated Press
New York - An outbreak of bird flu among migratory waterfowl in China suggests the disease - which could trigger a dangerous flu among people - may be poised to spread to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe, scientists warn.
If the migrating birds carry the H5N1 flu virus beyond its current stronghold in southeast Asia, it could devastate poultry farms and raise the risk of a deadly flu pandemic in people, experts said.
"They're going to spread this thing further and further across central Asia and Europe and who knows where," said Robert Webster of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., an author of a report released online Wednesday by the journal Nature. Another report, released by the journal Science, said the finding of the H5N1 infection in migrant birds at Qinghai Lake in western China "indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat."
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