MANILA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday it was concerned that European countries facing the spread of bird flu would divert funding and attention away from Southeast Asia, the most likely epicentre of a human pandemic.

Officials in Europe are braced for an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003, after tests confirmed the disease in poultry in Romania and Turkey.

No human cases have been reported in Europe.

"There's a lot of anxiety (in Europe)," said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO in Manila.

"Quite clearly, the result of this could be that governments might focus on domestic preparedness and forget the fact that ground zero is Southeast Asia."

Cordingley said the feared mutation of the virus into a form that is easily transmitted between humans was most likely to take place in Southeast Asia, where millions of birds have been culled in an attempt to limit the disease's spread.

"(US President) George W. Bush has said it and he got it right. He said you cannot fight bird flu within the boundaries of the United States. You have to go to its genesis, and that's out here."

Experts say the fight against bird flu in Asia is being hampered by huge differences in wealth between countries.

Some countries still have no stockpiles of the expensive anti-viral drugs that could help limit a human pandemic and have poor public health infrastructure.

The WHO said on Friday it needed US$260 million from the international community to fight the spread of bird flu in Asia.

To date, about US$20 million had been committed to help fight the disease in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Viet Nam, where most of the deaths caused by the H5N1 strain have been reported. The WHO hopes to generate more pledges for Asia from wealthier states during meetings on bird flu in coming weeks in Canada, Australia and Switzerland.

"So far, there have been good indications but we don't have the money in the bank yet," Cordingley said.

"While we are concerned that money shouldn't get diverted into Europe, we're pretty confident we're going to get the money we want."

Romania culls fowl

Romanian authorities slaughtered poultry and sent in doctors on Sunday after the deadly strain of bird flu was confirmed in the Danube delta, and officials elsewhere in Europe prepared for a possible pandemic.

British laboratory tests showed on Saturday that the H5N1 strain of the disease had reached mainland Europe for the first time, identifying it in three ducks found dead in the Romanian village of Ceamurlia de Jos.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 60 people and caused the death of millions of birds in Asia since 2003, could mutate and spread easily among humans, creating a pandemic that might kill tens of millions of people.

Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said the outbreak was limited to Ceamurlia and Maliuc, 40 kilometres north. All 18,000 domestic birds in Ceamurlia were killed and culling of Maliuc's less than 3,000 poultry was under way.

"On a 10-kilometre radius around Ceamurlia de Jos, the tests (for bird flu) are negative," he told reporters.

"We have sent more doctors to the contaminated areas, and they will go from house to house to see how many people face the risk of being infected with the virus," Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu told a news conference.

Despite the Romanian assurances, Britain's chief medical officer said on Sunday his country was braced for a pandemic of bird flu that could result in at least 50,000 deaths there.

(China Daily 10/18/2005 page6)