ASIA: Ten Asian countries hit by the rapid spread of bird flu that has killed at least eight people and threatens to develop into an epidemic worse than SARS promised yesterday to fight it together.
Details of what they agreed were sparse as their task loomed even larger now that the lethal virus has struck in China, the world's most populous country, the birthplace of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and home to a vast poultry industry.
But the World Health Organisation said the one-day meeting in Bangkok, also attended by EU and US officials, was a good start.
"This meeting is the beginning of the process. Quite clearly they're going to start to work together now," WHO spokesman Mr Peter Cordingley said. He described some delegates as shaken by the rapid onslaught of the H5N1 avian flu virus.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao reflected the urgency displayed by the WHO, which, with two other international organisations, has called for money and expertise to launch an all-out war on the bird flu virus.
"Any epidemic must be eradicated as soon as it occurs to prevent it from spreading," the Chinese leaders were quoted by state television as saying. "Such an epidemic must be contained in one spot and cut off to prevent it from infecting humans."
China is slaughtering poultry around three farms in three regions where bird flu was confirmed on Tuesday, the latest of the quick-fire eruptions across Asia from Pakistan to Japan which, the WHO said, has no historical precedent.
The Bangkok statement said "rapid culling" was the preferred solution to an outbreak. - (Reuters)