Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Bird Flu Is a `High Risk' for India, Pakistan, World Bank Says

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu is a ``high risk'' for India, Pakistan and other South Asian countries because of the number of poultry kept in the region, where a spread of the virus among humans would cause a recession, the World Bank said. ``The economic consequences of a human-to-human transmission would be gigantic,'' said Julian Schweitzer, the World Bank's director for human development in South Asia. ``There would be huge economic disruption - trade, goods, food, and transport of all types.'' No human cases of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza have been reported in South Asia even as hundreds of thousands of chickens were culled in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan since February to contain outbreaks in fowl, the World Bank said in a June 5 statement. The virus may create a flu pandemic if it mutates into a form that's easily spread among people. For more details:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aldxCtAhzFfo

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