WHO to train experts in human bird flu containment

GENEVA, March 10 (Reuters) The World Health Organisation (WHO) today said it would train a team of 100 experts in how contain an outbreak of the bird flu virus if it starts spreading easily between humans.

The United Nations agency has sent several dozen experts in the past two years to help Asian and West Asia countries treat H5N1 infections in people and shore up their defences.

But the idea now is to give special training to a group of epidemiologists, laboratory and logistics experts worldwide in how to try to contain a highly contagious virus strain which could emerge -- before it sparks a deadly influenza pandemic.

''We will develop a roster of people who have received a great deal of training on containment procedures,'' Keiji Fukuda, acting director of the WHO's global influenza programme, told a news briefing.

''We will initially try to train 100 people with a variety of skills,'' the American scientist added.

Bird flu has killed at least 96 people in Asia and the West Asia since late 2003. Scientists fear the virus, which has spread among birds in the last months to Europe and Africa, could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic that could kill millions and cripple economies.

Fukuda was speaking after the WHO hosted three-day talks earlier this week among some 70 experts to sharpen the WHO's ''rapid response and containment strategy''.

Measures would include imposing quarantines and treating infected people and their contacts with Swiss firm Roche's antiviral Tamiflu -- all in a bid to halt transmission or at least slow the spread.

DIFFICULT ETHICAL ISSUES But the measures themselves raise difficult ethical issues, some of which remain unresolved, according to Fukuda.

''We made a great deal of progress on discussing some of these issues but it is quite complicated ... The whole idea of quarantine and containment is probably the biggest unresolved issue,'' he said.

''If, for example, you draw a big circle and say this is a quarantine zone, then issues come up. Do you keep people inside, do you keep people from the outside from moving in there, what kind of restrictions are there, what are the ethical considerations?'' he said.

Solutions will vary on whether the pandemic strain emerges in a rural setting or large city, and there is ''no single generic plan'', according to Fukuda.

Roche has donated 3 million treatment courses of Tamiflu -- earmarked for use in the WHO's containment strategy -- and has pledged another 2 million courses by September.

''It is clear that if we try to contain a pandemic -- and this has neverbeen attempted before, there is no precedent -- that there is a very good chance that we will fail, that we will not be able to stop it,'' Fukuda said.

''However, there is also a very good chance that if we mount this kind of effort we may slow down the spread of a pandemic virus early on. If we do that, if we buy some substantial amount of time and that means weeks, then we can really increase the chances for having more vaccine available more rapidly.'' Each day gained following the detection of a pandemic virus would allow production of around 5 million doses of a pandemic vaccine -- which does not exist yet -- the WHO says.

Experts estimate it would take four to six months to develop a vaccine once a pandemic virus is identified.

REUTERS KD RK2201