# 2079
While the risk of a pandemic has not abated, David Nabarro - the UN's Influenza coordinator - tells us that surveillance and containment of the virus in much of the world has improved over the past couple of years.
This report from Reuters.
World better equipped to fight flu pandemic: U.N.
Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:27pm BST
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - World readiness for an influenza pandemic has improved after an "extraordinary global response" to the bird flu threat of recent years, the top U.N. official dealing with the disease said on Tuesday.
But David Nabarro, the world body's influenza coordinator, said the risk of a pandemic remained, should the bird flu virus mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain has caused the death or destruction of an estimated 300 million birds since it resurfaced in Asia in 2003. While H5N1 rarely infects people, it has killed 241 out of 383 infected in 15 countries.
Worldwide concern about the disease mounted in 2005 as cases were found in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Nabarro told a U.N. news conference that "there has been an extraordinary global response to ... the spread of the virus ... that has meant that now the continuous transmission of this virus is only occurring in four, perhaps five countries."
Elsewhere, he said, "the situation is really improving. Countries generally have invested massively in improving the functioning of their veterinary services, and also the security ... around which poultry are reared has generally improved."
He said the United Nations was most concerned about Indonesia, which has the most human cases, but also about Vietnam, Bangladesh and Egypt. The situation in Nigeria had "really calmed down" this year, he added.
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