Quicker detection key to fighting bird flu: WHO

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

TOKYO (AFP) — Doctors need to speed up testing for bird flu and governments must jointly stockpile supplies to stop the virus whose threat to the world is growing by the day.

Twenty-one countries and organizations are holding talks in Tokyo sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss what measures to take should the virus mutate into a form that could be transmitted from human to human.

Fears of bird flu are mounting, with Turkey this month reporting two deaths from avian influenza -- the first outside Asia, where more than 70 people have died from the virus since 2003.

"As the new human cases in Turkey show, the situation is worsening with each passing month and the threat of an influenza pandemic is continuing to grow every day," Shigeru...