The bird flu outbreak that has recently killed over fifty people in Asia could spread to other parts of the world, experts have predicted. Bird flu has killed 39 people in Vietnam since it arrived in Asia almost two years ago, along with twelve Thais and four Cambodians. Nineteen of the Vietnamese victims have died since last December in the latest wave of virus infections, which seems to thrive best in the cool of winter.
Francois-Xavier Meslin of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that indications of possible changes in its clinical effects on humans and an increase in the number of reported clusters of human cases were worrying signs. The organisation is on alert for the possibility of a pandemic.
