# 1749
File this one under `Things we already knew', but it is a useful reminder - particularly for a world that seems quick to forget when a threat slips from the daily headlines.
The H5N1 virus continues to march across Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe. It is making inroads in Africa. More than 60 nations have been affected. Once infected, regions are finding it nearly impossible to eradicate.
Bird flu appears here to stay.
And with it, comes the potential for a pandemic. Not assured, of course. But the threat remains.
This report from The Straits Times.
Bird flu well entrenched in Asia: WHO
MANILA - THE bird flu virus is 'firmly entrenched' in Asia and a pandemic among humans remains possible, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert warned.
While Asian countries are more prepared to react to any outbreaks than before and have vaccine stockpiles, deaths and infections have continued, noted Mr Takeshi Kasai, the WHO's regional adviser in communicable disease surveillance and response unit.
'The virus has been firmly entrenched in this region, I'm afraid,' Mr Kasai told reporters on Wednesday during an exercise to test the Philippines' preparations against the disease.
'The virus itself keeps changing, so the risk of pandemic persists.'
Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.
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