Bird Flu: 2 More Deaths Suspected

In Indonesia, Where 11 Human Deaths Have Been Confirmed

(CBS/AP)  The H5N1 strain of bird flu has ravaged flocks in at least 16 countries, mostly in eastern Asia, since late 2003 and has started spreading to eastern Europe. The World Health Organization has confirmed 78 human deaths from the disease worldwide.

Nabarro said several countries have intensified efforts to fight the disease.

He praised Turkey for taking "intense and competent action" to contain a fast-moving outbreak that has killed at least two children and infected at least 13 other people so far this year.

"I am saying that the recent activities by Turkey's Ministry of Agriculture, particularly the culling and communication work, is good," Nabarro said.

He also singled out Vietnam - the worst-hit nation - for making "great steps forward" by putting a deputy prime minister in charge of battling the disease, initiating a bird immunization program and testing its preparedness for a pandemic.

And he said China is stepping up its defenses by detecting outbreaks early, destroying birds in affected areas and improving the way poultry is handled.

"We cannot afford to be in any way complacent," Nabarro said. "The fact that there are human cases of bird flu being reported at quite regular intervals now means that the disease is still quite serious."

In other recent developments:

The European Union has decided to extend its monitoring of wild birds and poultry until the end of 2006 as part of increased measures to prevent the spread of avian influenza. The program was to have run out at the end of January. The EU's executive office also freed up $2.4 million to increase laboratory testing for bird flu.

Two villages in southeast Romania were quarantined Wednesday after poultry there tested positive for an H5-subtype of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday. Authorities have begun culling birds in Dudesti and Ciresu, which are located next to villages where the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus has been confirmed. Specialists are also testing dogs, cats and pigs in the households where the sick birds were found, the ministry said in a statement.

France aims to have protective masks, vaccines and anti-viral drugs to protect its entire population in the event of a deadly flu pandemic, the health minister said Wednesday. France currently has 14 million anti-viral treatments, and has ordered 40 million flu vaccines, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said. He did not indicate what kind of vaccines had been ordered or from where.

Veterinary experts in Tbilisi, Georgia, have traveled to a district neighboring Turkey to increase monitoring to prevent bird flu from crossing the border, Georgia's agriculture minister said Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Mikhail Svimonishvili said specialists had gone to the Satskhe-Dzhavakheti region, southwest of the capital Tbilisi, and that he was hoping harsh winter weather there would help prevent spread of the disease.

Russian nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky on Wednesday urged Russian men to grab rifles and shoot migratory birds to stem the spread of avian flu from Turkey, while officials pondered preventative measures. Zhirinovsky, who has earned a reputation as the clown of Russian politics thanks to his provocative statements and other antics, told a parliament session that Russia should become a no-fly zone for migratory birds from Turkey.

Officials in northern Iraq have banned the importation of birds from neighboring Turkey as a measure to fight the spread of bird flu, an agriculture official said Wednesday. "The provincial government in the northern Kurdish enclave also has banned the selling of live bird in markets," Shamal Abid Waffal, the minister of agriculture in the northern province of Kurdistan told the Associated Press.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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