The World Health Organization moved Friday to revise alarming predictions that a pandemic stemming from the bird flu virus ravaging parts of Asia could kill as many as 150 million people.
The U.N. health agency was deluged with inquiries after Dr. David Nabarro - named Thursday as the U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza - cited the number during a news conference at the U.N.'s New York headquarters.
While WHO's flu spokesman at the agency's Geneva headquarters did not say the 150 million prediction was wrong, he emphasized that 7.4 million deaths is a more realistic estimate.
HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- A strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus that may unleash the next global flu pandemic is showing resistance to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that countries around the world are now stockpiling to fend off the looming threat.
Bird flu 'out of control' in Chinese province
The Chinese government says the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in one of its provinces is not under control and has warned of a potential disaster there. There have been three fresh outbreaks of the avian virus in the north-eastern province of Liaoning in 24 hours, and a new suspected human infection...
Jump in suspected bird flu cases in people
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia said on Monday a 20-year-old woman has died of bird flu and several other countries also reported more suspected cases in people.
Adding to the sense of alarm, researchers in Vietnam say the H5N1 avian flu virus has mutated allowing it to replicate more easily inside humans and other mammals. Taiwan said it had detected another bird flu strain that can infect people.
Avian influenza is known to have infected 125 people in Asia, killing 64, and is endemic in most poultry flocks in the region.
There are at least a dozen other suspected cases as governments in Asia struggle to control outbreaks in poultry to prevent more people from catching the virus, which experts fear could trigger a pandemic.
Vietnam and China said on Monday they had had more suspicious cases in people, while Thailand said a toddler confirmed infected with bird flu was recovering.
In the Indonesian capital, tests confirmed the woman died from H5N1, a Health Ministry official said and that tests were also being conducted on samples from a 13 year-old girl.
Both died over the weekend in the Sulianti Saroso Hospital, Jakarta's hospital for treating bird flu patients. Initial tests on the girl were negative.
Earlier, a hospital official said a 16-year-old boy had tested positive but Hariadi Wibisono, a senior official at the Health Ministry, said that was not the case.
Final test results for the woman and a 16-year-old girl who died last week have to be confirmed by a laboratory in Hong Kong.
The laboratory, affiliated with the World Health Organization, has confirmed five people have died of bird flu in Indonesia. But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono put the toll higher, telling a news conference on Monday seven of the 11 people who had contracted avian influenza in Indonesia had died.
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