WHO Warns of Mutating Bird Flu

BANGKOK -- The World Health Organization said on Thursday it was deeply concerned the bird flu spreading across Asia could mutate into a far more lethal form after Thailand reported its first human case of the disease.

Thai senator and health expert Nirun Phitakwatchara said a seven-year-old boy was confirmed as being infected with the potentially fatal disease, while the government said two more suspected sufferers were undergoing tests.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are also battling their own bird flu outbreaks but have not reported any cases of human infection.

'The spread of the virus is so wide across such a large part of Asia that we see there is a reason for growing concern,' WHO spokesman in Vietnam Bob Dietz told AFP.

'The more widespread it becomes the more chance there is that it could alter its form.'

The WHO says the five victims in Vietnam were infected after coming into contact with droppings from sick birds. But Dietz warned that human-to-human transmission was 'a possible next step' if the virus keeps spreading.

The WHO has warned the world could face another influenza pandemic if H5N1 swaps genes with a common flu virus, creating a lethal pathogen that could spread around the globe within months.

An estimated 50 million people died from the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. This was followed by pandemics in 1957-1958 and 1968-1969. Another is considered inevitable and possibly imminent.

China, which is considered a hotbed for viruses, has yet to report any outbreak of bird flu, triggering fears it might be hiding cases as it did during the Sars crisis.

The WHO has pressed Beijing for more information and warned that bird flu could be even more destructive than Sars. -- AFP