Geneva - The risk of a pandemic sparked by the H5N1 strain of bird flu remains a real threat to human health and the world still needs another three years to prepare, the World Health Organization, WHO, warned Wednesday. WHO said the virus, which passes from birds to humans, had killed 200 of the 350 people confirmed as infected worldwide. It had struck in 60 countries.
WHO avian flu expert David Nabarro told journalists in Geneva it was still feared that the H5N1 strain, the most dangerous ever recorded, could be the virus that mutates and causes the next human influenza pandemic by passing from human to human.