People should not panic about a possible influenza pandemic, despite media hype, leading health officials and politicians stated.

More than 60 people in Southeast Asia have died of avian flu and the outbreak among birds has made its way to Europe. Experts say the world is overdue for a flu pandemic and predict the most likely cause will be an animal strain that mutates, allowing it to be passed easily from human to human.

Despite media hype and increasing public nervousness, Margaret Chan, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, said the general population should remember it is relatively hard to catch bird flu.

"We are not in a pandemic yet and I don't want the community to have unnecessary anxiety," she stated in an interview.

Chan and Canadian officials said the public should understand there are clear differences between avian flu, seasonal flu and a pandemic that could kill tens of millions -- such as the Spanish flu of 1918-1919.

"We are taking very drastic actions to reduce the risk of avian influenza to animals and birds," said Chan, who was in Ottawa for a conference on combating future pandemics.

There are clear signs the continuing talk about a possible pandemic is making people nervous and the media is clearly making things worse.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said the global fight against a flu pandemic could be undermined if governments fail to prevent mass panic in the event of widespread fatalities.

"Among the most profound challenges we face is communication with our own citizens. Public fear, and bad information, could all too easily snowball into panic," he told delegates.

"It would complicate our collective response to a pandemic immeasurably and magnify its potential impact," he said.

Italian poultry farmers recently demonstrated on demanding action against "irrational fear" over bird flu, which has cut national consumption of chicken by more than half.

"Our job ... is to find the balance between informing and inflaming, to inspire people to prepare, not to panic. What we do know is that there is likely to be another pandemic," said U.S. Health Secretary Michael Leavitt.

The Ottawa meeting recommended that more be done to stem the spread of avian flu, boost research on vaccines and increase surveillance of affected areas.

Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk said the best way to ensure sufficient vaccines in the event of a pandemic was to transfer the necessary technology now to nations such as Mexico, India, China and Brazil.

Leavitt described the proposal as reasoned while Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott was more cautious, saying it was very hard for a country that has no experience in producing vaccines to suddenly start doing so successfully.

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