Asia to face Bird flu threat in 2005

BANGKOK, DECEMBER 14 (AFP)

Chilling warnings about an inevitable global influenza pandemic that could kill millions signal more turmoil to come after a grim year in Asia when nations weary from fighting SARS faced a new foe in bird flu.

Countries and their governments from Thailand to Korea are holding their collective breath to see if the infectious diseases would throttle 2005 much as they shook the region this year, when 32 people died of bird flu in Thailand and Vietnam and Asian poultry industries were sent into a tailspin.

Experts say avian influenza, the health world's unwanted carpet-bagger for 2004, has entrenched itself in much of Asia and is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

"I think bird flu is going to continue to be a concern, and by all approaches it looks like it has become endemic in eight or nine countries in the region and the chances it will be eradicated are slim," Scott Dowell of the US Centres for Disease Control told AFP.

This year saw two major outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, which slammed Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, with less virulent strains also hitting parts of the United States, Canada, Pakistan and Taiwan.