FAO Warns of Alarming Increase in Bird Flu Cases in Asia and Pacific

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned Thursday of an increase in bird flu cases among humans and animals across the Asia-Pacific region, calling for an urgent and unified response to address this increase. The FAO said in a statement, "The H5N1 virus has spread more widely than ever before, reaching South America and Antarctica and infecting new species of wild and domestic animals," urging a number of countries to cooperate in order to implement comprehensive monitoring systems, including the sequencing of the entire genome to track the spread and development of the virus. In a related context, Kachin Wongsathapornchai, Regional Director of the WHO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, said in statements, "We have observed an increase in human cases and the spread of the virus to new animal species," noting that the emergence of new strains (A/H5N1) has been recorded, which are more susceptible to spread, and increases the possibility of a pandemic, which re quires immediate, coordinated and effective preventive measures. The United Nations agency counted 13 new human cases reported in Cambodia since late 2023, with additional cases in China and Vietnam, at a time when the Philippines and Indonesia are imposing strict measures; due to their environmental diversity and insufficient measures to prevent the spread of diseases, while India, Nepal and Bangladesh are also struggling with the spread of the disease. Source: Qatar News Agency