South Korea confirms bird flu outbreak
Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:14:32 GMTBy JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south Saturday, although the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved, the government said.
The virus that caused the latest outbreak was a "low pathogenic" H7 strain that has not been known to spread to humans, said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Quarantine workers slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at the farm in Gwangju, about 205 miles southwest of the capital, Seoul, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.
The outbreak, South Korea's first since March, was confirmed on Friday, the ministry official said.
Seven outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 virus hit poultry farms across South Korea between November 2006 and March this year, resulting in the slaughter of about 2.8 million birds.
The country declared itself free of bird flu in June after reporting no new outbreaks for three months. The latest outbreak does not affect South Korea's bird flu-free status because it involves a "low pathogenic" virus, the ministry official said.
Since H5N1 reemerged in 2003, it has led to the death or slaughter of hundreds of millions of birds and has killed 206 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Britain plans flu shots for everyone
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:51:45 GMTLONDON - The government unveiled plans Thursday to provide vaccinations for the entire population in the advent of a flu pandemic.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said a flu pandemic was "one of the most severe risks" facing the country, telling lawmakers that he had signed an agreement to secure the delivery of enough pandemic flu vaccines to cover every citizen.
Experts will formulate the vaccination once the strain of the virus has been identified. Officials said it was impossible to predict when the next pandemic would strike and what form it would take.
The last global flu pandemic — Hong Kong flu — struck in 1968, leading to approximately 1 million deaths worldwide and 80,000 in Britain, said a Department of Health spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
"We don't believe an influenza is imminent," the spokeswoman said.
The World Health Organization recently praised Britain for its preparedness to tackle a global flu outbreak.
