Bird flu kills 39 this year, nears 2005 tally as virus spreads
Bloomberg
May 13, 2006

Bird flu is reported to have killed 39 of the 64 people known to have been infected this year, almost as many deaths as in the whole of 2005, as the virus spread across three continents, causing outbreaks in 36 nations.

Avian influenza reappeared in birds in the Ukraine, two months after the East European country said it was free of the disease, Ukrainian TV channel ICTV reported yesterday. A new outbreak was also detected in birds in neighboring Romania, and Djibouti, in East Africa, called on the World Health Organization for urgent support after its first case.

Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden, shares borders with Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. ``Surveillance for additional human and animal cases is presently under way, but is hindered by the country's lack of resources and of epidemiological and laboratory capacities,'' the WHO said yesterday on its Web site.

Health officials globally are trying to control the virus in animals. Diseased fowl increase the risk for humans and create opportunities for the virus to mutate into a form that's easily transmitted from person to person. That could spark a pandemic such as one in 1918 that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu virus has killed at least 115 of 208 people known to have been infected since late 2003, the Geneva-based WHO said yesterday. In 2005, 41 deaths were recorded among the 95 reported cases.
Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or taking off the feathers, according to the WHO. Cooking meat and eggs properly kills the virus.