OUTBEAK
Government warned over huge bird flu risk
SCIENTISTS fear a bird flu pandemic worse than the 2009 swine flu outbreak could be heading Britain’s way.
And the UK is making no preparations for a vaccine to prevent it.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Given the severity of the warnings, the Government ought to say what measures it is taking to improve preparedness to deal with an outbreak like this.”
More than 1,300 bird flu victims have been identified, mostly in China.
Of those, 476 have died, a rate of more than one in three.
There are also victims in Indonesia, Egypt and Vietnam, and two cases in Canada of people travelling from China.
The virus, H7N9, has so far only been caught by humans from birds or a close family member who is infected.
But scientists say that it is only two mutations away from widespread human-to-human transmission.
A warning in New Scientist magazine says: “If the virus evolves the ability to spread between humans easily, it will go pandemic and circle the world in weeks.” Flu experts say if that happens it is likely to be more severe than the H1N1 swine flu pandemic that swept Britain eight years ago. They fear it could rival the 1918 pandemic when a bird flu strain killed up to 100million people worldwide. The 2009 swine flu outbreak in Britain struck 800,000 people and caused more than 280 deaths. The US Centre for Disease Control said: “It is possible that this latest virus could gain the ability to spread easily and sustainably among people, triggering a global outbreak.”
A Public Health England ( PHE) spokesman said vaccine research is being carried out in the US and by the World Health Organisation.
She added: “Public Health England is not involved.”
A PHE report in March said the risk was low but added: “This large peak in cases does warrant careful and continued monitoring.”