GENEVA - Poultry workers, cullers and veterinarians should wear special
clothing and take antiviral drugs to protect them from bird flu, the World
Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
All those at "high risk of exposure," working on farms with bird flu
outbreaks or at risk of them, should wear coveralls, rubber gloves, surgical
masks, goggles and rubber boots, and could take an antiviral drug, it said.
"These measures are particularly important during veterinary investigations
and extensive and urgent culling operations," the United Nations agency said in
a statement posted on its site www.who.int .
Humans suspected of having caught the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu should
be placed in immediate isolation, investigated, and checked for signs such as
fever for 14 days, it added.
The WHO also urged countries to share samples and viruses isolated from
infected humans with its network of laboratories to permit quick analysis and
guide national disease control strategies.
The H5N1 strain has killed 62 people in four countries in Asia since
re-emerging in 2003 and has recently been found among birds in Croatia, Romania,
Turkey and Russia, but no human cases have been reported in Europe.
Experts fear the virus could spark an outbreak among humans if it mutates to
allow human-to-human transmission, and the WHO says it has the potential to
start an influenza pandemic.