Experts urge preparation for bird flu

Influenza experts are urging the world to prepare for a flu pandemic.

No one knows when the next human flu pandemic might occur, nor how bad it might be. What is known is that they happen on average three times each century. Last century had one severe flu pandemic - the worst recorded - and two that were milder.

Health authorities are worried that the next pandemic might arise from the H5N1 bird flu epidemic that emerged in South Korea and has since spread to several other Asian countries and gradually westwards into Eastern Europe.

It has killed or led to the culling of tens of millions of chickens and other birds.

The World Health Organisation has recorded 148 confirmed human cases since the disease re-emerged in 2003, of whom 79 have died.

The virus cannot easily spread between humans, but virologists fear it could change to do so, as happened with the 1918 Spanish flu, which evolved from a strain of duck flu.

Because of the ease of international air travel, a new, highly infectious pandemic flu virus could be brought to New Zealand within hours of outbreaks becoming established overseas.

Depending on how a pandemic unfolded, the border would probably be closed until it was clear that the disease was established in New Zealand. Internal travel may be restricted, schools and other public gatherings may be closed and many people could stay home from work.

Click on link below for steps that the Ministry of Health suggests households can take to prepare for a flu pandemic.