New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) Asia needs US$ 500 million more to fight a possible bird flu pandemic, this according to health and agriculture experts from 11 Asian countries currently meeting at a regional conference in New Delhi to discuss the disease.
Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told the gathering the region needs about US$ 882 million to establish "reasonable levels of preparedness" for a human influenza pandemic.
"The current gap in mobilising these resources is around 65 per cent," he said.
Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced that the H5N1 bird flu virus was found on a poultry farm near the Laotian capital of Vientiane.
The outbreak, which occurred last week, killed 2,500 chickens. It is the worst to have hit the country since 2004.
Thailand recorded the 15th bird flu-related death last Wednesday, the first case in seven months.
Thus far the H5N1 virus has killed more than 130 people worldwide, mostly in South-East Asia. It has also resulted in the culling of millions of poultry and other birds.
Soon or later, experts worry, the virus might mutate and make human-to-human transmission possible. Should that happen, millions of people might die from the resulting pandemic.