Fears Bird Flu May Mutate to Human Form

January 30, 2004

Geneva - The unsafe culling of poultry to fight the spread of bird flu may increase the danger of the virus mutating into a strain that can be transmitted from person to person.

This was the warning issued yesterday by a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson.

The WHO has warned that while humans have caught the disease only through contact with infected birds or their droppings, it could claim millions of lives if it mutates into a form that can be passed among humans - a risk that rises with the increase in the number of people who fall ill.

"If (the killing of birds) is done in such a way that exposes more people, then this ... could be increasing the risk of developing a strain that you would not want to see," WHO spokesperson Dick Thompson said.

"From what we can see ... many of these culling workers are not wearing the right personal-protection equipment. We are also unsure how many of these people have been vaccinated against (normal) influenza."

The virus, which has swept through 10 Asian countries, has led to the deaths or culling of more than 20-million poultry. But it has claimed just 10 human lives in Vietnam and Thailand.

A sequence of factors must happen for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu to mutate into a form that can pass from human to human, Thompson explained.

Someone who catches avian influenza must also have regular human flu and the two viruses must mix in a way to produce a second-generation disease that is transmittable among humans, he said.

"It is really a matter of coincidence," Thompson said.

Meanwhile, European Union food and animal health experts have suspended imports of pet birds from a number of Asian countries in a bid to prevent the bird flu virus from entering the EU.

Officials said imports had been suspended from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong), South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam with immediate effect. - Sapa-AFP-DPA

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