International scientists have downgraded the risk of an imminent bird flu pandemic, hailing as 'very good news' indications that the virus has not mutated, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
A team of virologists and epidemiologists from Britain, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States left Vietnam yesterday after judging the threat posed by the H5N1 strain to humans to be lower than previously thought.'What was reported to the government is that, according to preliminary findings, they could not find any indication showing that the virus has actually extended its range in humans,' Hans Troedsson, WHO representative in Vietnam, told Agence France-Presse.
'The most important thing is that we could rule out that there was an immediate, imminent pandemic,' Troedsson said.
'Since the virus is widely spread, the risk is still there but not as imminent as we initially might have suspected.'
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