Vietnam confirms 42nd bird-flu death
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 00:47

atients, disinfecting the environment and operating mobile units.

China's government ordered local officials to step up efforts to prevent human infections and preparations to treat possible cases, the Xinhua News Agency said. A day earlier, authorities closed live poultry markets in Beijing and were going house-to-house in the Chinese capital Beijing seizing chickens and ducks raised in private homes.

In Geneva, experts at the first major international coordination meeting on bird flu said a human flu pandemic was inevitable and urged countries to draw up plans.

"We must wage a war on this scourge," said Bernard Vallat, head of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

Experts agree a global flu outbreak capable of killing millions of people is a certainty. What is also certain, they say, is that the virus will come from bird flu.

Six months ago, fewer than 40 countries had a pandemic flu plan, said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic response. Now, 120 countries, or 60 percent of the WHO member states, have a plan, he said.

The plans include improving early detection of disease, increasing the ability of hospitals to cope with sudden heavy traffic, and the stockpiling of drugs and vaccines.

The fear of bird flu mutating into a form easily transmitted between people is greatest in Asia, where most of the deaths have been linked to direct contact with infected birds.

Also in China, authorities warned Tuesday that fake bird flu vaccines for poultry were threatening public health and said an unapproved product was being sold in northern Liaoning province, the site of a recent outbreak.

"This fake medicine could result in serious consequences," Jia Youling, chief veterinary officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, said in a television interview. "It could cause very serious harm to both people and poultry."