More countries need to enact preventative measures and boost preparedness for a possible renewed outbreak of SARS or avian flu among humans, a top World Health Organization official said.

"Many countries still do not have national pandemic preparedness plans essential to minimize the impact of the next pandemic," Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO's Western Pacific regional director, told delegates at the regional organization's annual conference in Shanghai.

Omi's comments came amid warnings of the likely emergence of new diseases that, like SARS and avian flu, originate in animals — known as zoonotic diseases.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome killed almost 800 people worldwide after emerging in southern China in late 2002. So far this year, 39 cases of avian flu have been detected among humans, including 28 people who died in Thailand and Vietnam.

Early detection and reporting of outbreaks is crucial for minimizing their social and economic impact, Omi said. Failure to do so can allow viruses to pass quickly from one country to the next, as happened with SARS, he said.

Although avian influenza has appeared in many Asian countries, most nations still lack comprehensive programs to prevent animals from infecting each other, Omi said. The importance of the poultry industry in most countries also provides incentive to cover-up or minimize outbreaks, he said.

WHO has been particularly worried that the virus could acquire the ability to spread person-to-person, with Omi saying the implications of that would be "far more serious than last year's SARS outbreak."

Researchers have been unable to trace the source of infection of three new cases among people in Vietnam, but there has been no evidence so far that they were infected by humans, said Hitoshi Oshitani, a WHO adviser on communicable diseases.

Reference Source 102
September 14, 2004

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