Quote:A flu pandemic could happen at any time and kill between 5-150 million people, a UN health official has warned.
David Nabarro, who is charged with co-ordinating responses to bird flu, said a mutation of the virus affecting Asia could trigger new outbreaks.
"The consequences in terms of human life when the pandemic does start are going to be extraordinary and very damaging," Dr Nabarro told the BBC.
Bird flu has swept through poultry and wild birds in Asia since 2003.
It has killed huge numbers of birds and led to more than 60 human deaths.
H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS
Principally an avian disease, first seen in humans in Hong Kong, 1997
Almost all human cases thought to be contracted from birds
Isolated cases of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong and Vietnam, but none confirmed
"It's like a combination of global warming and HIV/Aids 10 times faster than it's running at the moment," Dr Nabarro told the BBC.
The UN's new co-ordinator for avian and human influenza said the likelihood that the Asian virus could mutate and jump to humans was high.
Because it has moved to wild migratory birds there is a possibility "that the first outbreak could happen even in Africa or in the Middle East", he warned.
The comments came as agriculture ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) endorsed a three-year plan to combat the spread of the virus, and pledged $2m to fund research and training.
Dr Nabarro stressed he would be working hard to control bird flu through contact with farming communities and markets where birds are sold and looking at the migration of wild birds.
He said the number of deaths from any future influenza pandemic would depend on where it started, how quickly it was discovered and the kind of response they got from governments.
"The range of deaths could be anything between 5m and 150m," said Dr Nabarro.
"I believe that the work we're doing over the next few months will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 or in the direction of five. "So our effectiveness will be directly measured in lives saved and the consequences for the world."
The appointment of Dr Nabarro is an indication of how seriously the UN is taking the threat, the BBC's UN correspondent Suzannah Price says.
In his new role, he is meant to ensure that the UN has a co-ordinated response to bird flu and that it helps global efforts to prepare for any human flue pandemic, our correspondent says.
They say this crap every year about every virus. It's complete bull. They said a lot of people were going to die when we ran short of flu vaccine, mad cow disease, killer bees, west nile, etc. I'm not saying a devastating plague is never gonna happen cause it probably will, but it will probably be one we never see coming.
Soon we will all die. Or grow feathers and cluck. a lot of people are gonna die, just in countries most of you have never heard of.
Quote:David Nabarro, who is charged with co-ordinating responses to bird flu, said a mutation of the virus affecting Asia could trigger new outbreaks.
The guy from Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Wow, he's moved up in the world!
Ha ha, yeah, all joking aside, this bird flu thing? Scary ****. But how many of those 5-150 million deaths are going to occur in third world countries where the hospital systems and quarantine methods and overall sanitary conditions aren't as good as countries like Canada, the U.S., Britain and similar countries?
Not to say those countries wouldn't be effected, but would there be death spread equally across the globe or would the majority of the deaths be in areas whose conditions are already shitty? i.e India/Pakistan/Bangladesh?
This is the birds' revenge for continually cutting down trees and destroying their habitats. "When the Birds Attack" would make a cool title for an upcoming Hollywood movie.
Oh, great. Let me stick a finger up my arse and pull any number out.
I want to know how the **** did they come up with these numbers.
I'm sure this is all a hoax. I mean, bird flu? Seriously, I EAT BIRDS!!! Well, at least chickens, and a lot of them. Mmm, breast...
The bubonic plague and flu epidemic of 1918 didn't kill all of humanity and neither will this.
Even if it does hit humans strong the human body is built to be able to adapt to things and will eventually become immune from the flu.
I believe H.G. Wells mentioned this when the aliens got pwned in War of the Worlds.
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