Death Rates High

WHO's Lee will miss talks on pandemic plans
SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): Talks at the World Health Assembly this week aimed at galvanizing a global response to a threatened influenza pandemic may be hindered by the sudden illness of the World Health Organization's director-general, Lee Jong-wook.

Lee, 61, is recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain, the United Nations agency said Saturday in a statement. He will remain in the hospital for several days and miss the annual key policy-setting meeting in Geneva on May 22-27, to be attended by delegates from 192 countries, the WHO said.

Lee was scheduled to address the Assembly on Monday.

"Dr. Lee suddenly fell ill this afternoon while he was attending an official function," the WHO said in its statement.

"He was taken to hospital by ambulance. Examination by medical staff determined that he required surgery in order to remove a blood clot on his brain."

Strengthening pandemic-influenza preparedness and response is one of the assembly's top agenda items as health officials worry the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu circulating in parts of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa may mutate into a form that's easily spread among people.

The lack of a clear cause for H5N1 infections in as many as seven members of an Indonesian family this month is unnerving authorities who are attempting to rule out the possibility that the virus was transmitted from person to person.

Avian flu could spark a pandemic if it spreads easily among people. Humans have no natural immunity to it, making it likely that people who contract any pandemic flu based on that strain will become more seriously ill than when infected by seasonal flu.

Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is now closer to another flu pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three pandemics occurred.

While previous pandemics have killed no more than 2 percent to 3 percent of those infected, more than half those known to have contracted H5N1 influenza have died.

Fatalities from H5N1 in the first five months of this year have surpassed 2005 levels as the virus spread to animals in more than 30 countries on three continents. At least 123 of the 217 people known to be infected with avian flu worldwide have diedsince 2003, the WHO said on Friday.

Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or taking off feathers, according to the WHO. Cooking meat and eggs properly kills the virus. (***)
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