The world will lose 2,000 billion dollars because of bird flu

Damage from bird flu can be a very specific and huge number that we have not yet figured out.

According to AFP, at the international conference on bird flu taking place in New Delhi (India) on December 4, Mr. Peter Harrold - acting vice president of the World Bank (WB) - forecast the amount of damage to 2,000 billion USD for the world economy.

According to Harrold, donors have pledged to provide $ 2.3 billion to help countries stop bird flu, in addition to more than $ 1 billion collected from organizations. However, the report prepared by the World Bank and the United Nations (UN), announced last week, said in the past two years, although many countries have improved their ability to cope with bird flu, the danger The risk of spreading this disease is still huge.

Attending the conference, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, warned that if a pandemic of bird flu broke out, it could affect nearly 20% of the world's population. She cites up to 28 million people who will need emergency medical assistance when outbreaks occur, and then the world workforce can lose up to 35% of those who become ill. The worst scenario that experts still fear is the variant of the virus that makes it more toxic and easier to spread to people.

The conference in New Delhi gathered more than 600 delegates from 105 countries. During the days from 1 to 4-12, the conference discussed effective measures to deal with bird flu. Experts attending the conference jointly commented that many countries have made significant progress in responding to bird flu and that almost all countries in the world have planned for flu prevention. poultry spread. David Nabarro, co-coordinator of the UN bird flu and one of the authors of the UN-WB mixed report, stressed: 'Report from 95% of countries said they had plans responding to human avian influenza '.

Collect pigeons at a farm in Riyadh on 4-12.Saudi Arabia is also suffering from bird flu (Photo: Reuters)

However, the conference also warned that in some countries, bird flu is still a major threat to human health. The H5N1 strain alone killed more than 200 people around the world since the end of 2003 until now.

On the same day, South Korean agricultural authorities sealed a poultry farm in Jincheon village, 90km south of Seoul, after discovering that the farm showed signs of bird flu. According to the Korean Ministry of Agriculture, the ducks on the farm had symptoms of bird flu and their blood samples were being tested. In order to prevent outbreaks of influenza, the authorities have blocked and disinfected the farm.

From November 2006 to March 2007, South Korea had seven bird flu outbreaks. However, in June last year, the World Animal Health Organization recognized that the country is out of avian influenza. Last month, about 13,000 ducks in Gwangju were destroyed after medical workers discovered in the local flock of H7 virus, a form of low-toxicity bird flu virus.

NGUYEN QUAN