As governments throughout Asia scrambled to contain a deadly outbreak of bird flu, Thai authorities confirmed today that the second boy to have been stricken with the disease has died, becoming the country's second fatality and the region's eighth (Ian Mader, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Jan. 27).  U.N. agencies today called for a campaign to wipe out bird flu comparable to that mounted in response to SARS, saying a brief window of opportunity exists to avert a human and animal pandemic (Food and Agriculture Organization release, Jan. 27).

Six people have died in Vietnam, and eight other countries — China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan — have reported some strain of bird flu (Mader, AP/Yahoo! News). According to the New York Times, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have also reported that chickens have been dying from a mysterious illness (Keith Bradsher, Jan. 27).

So far millions of chicken and other poultry have been slaughtered across Asia in an effort to contain the virus (Mader, AP/Yahoo! News).

Unlike other countries that have reported the disease, Indonesia has not begun culling poultry, prompting the WHO to urge the government to start doing so as soon as possible.  According to WHO, vaccinations and other measures to fight the disease will not work and the infected birds must be killed (Agence France-Presse/Jakarta Post, Jan. 27).

The Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health today warned that the rapidly spreading virus must be contained before it evolves into an "efficient and dangerous human pathogen."

"We have a brief window of opportunity before us to eliminate that threat," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf.  "Farmers in affected areas urgently need to kill infected and exposed animals and require support to compensate for such losses. ... The international community has a stake in the success of these efforts, and poorer nations will need help."

WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook added, "This is a serious global threat to human health. But we have faced several emerging infectious diseases in the past," he said, referring to SARS.  "This time, we have something we can possibly control before it reaches global proportions if we work cooperatively and share needed resources. We must begin this hard, costly work now" (FAO release).

So far there has been no evidence that bird flu can pass from one person to another, but WHO officials have said the virus could mutate to allow human transmission, which could make the bird flu a bigger health crisis than SARS (U.N. Wire, Jan. 26).

The New York Times reports today that WHO officials believe that migratory birds are playing an important role in spreading bird flu through Asia. Once the droppings of infected birds dry up, they turn to dust and are inhaled by other birds.

The Times also reports that many wild birds, which do not succumb to avian influenza as easily as domesticated fowl, are apparently dying from the disease, which indicates that bird flu is serious.

"Migratory birds are what carry the disease," said WHO spokesman Bob Dietz. "If they're dying, it's an awfully strong disease" (Bradsher, New York Times).