WHO: Human Bird Flu Deaths Top 100

In The U.S., Local Authorities Begin To Prepare

(CBS/AP) 
But Regan reports that a new study shows that only 48 percent of American corporations are considering a plan for a pandemic, and only 15 percent actually have one. Government studies estimate that a human bird flu pandemic could cost American businesses $675 billion.


In Azerbaijan the victims were a 17-year-old girl, her cousins — a woman of 20 and a boy of 16 — and a close family friend, a 17-year-old girl, WHO reported.

Two more cases in the community — on Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast, south of the capital, Baku — are a 10-year-old boy, who has recovered, and a 15-year-old girl, who is hospitalized in critical condition.

The seventh confirmed infection was in a 21-year-old woman in the central western part of the country. She died on March 9, WHO said.

Two more people in the coastal area have been hospitalized with pneumonia symptoms, often associated with bird flu. Testing of these patients is under way, WHO said.

The agency said its experts and those from the Health Ministry were working closely together and that 90 teams were conducting house-to-house surveillance for cases of influenza-like illness.

After officials in Baku found a single case of a stray dog infected with bird flu they announced last week they would collect and kill stray cats and dogs because of fears that they might spread bird flu.

The outbreak in Azerbaijan was first detected last month in wild birds along the Caspian Sea coast. It has spread to the northeast and the southwest near the border with Iran.

Azerbaijan shares a short border with Turkey, where four children died recently of the disease.