Bird flu poses 'real and substantial' economic threat: WBank
NST, 16 Sept 2006

A feared bird flu pandemic poses a "real and substantial" financial threat that could wipe as much as two trillion dollars off the value of the global economy, a World Bank expert warned Sunday.
"We estimate that this could cost, certainly over one trillion dollars and perhaps as high as two trillion dollars in the worst case scenario. The economic threat remains real and remains substantial," Adams said.

The World Bank warned that over the past year bird flu had "gone global", spreading beyond East Asia to South Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The virus, known to pass from infected poultry to humans, has killed more than 140 people, mostly in Asia.

The World Bank has committed financing of about 150 billion dollars for projects in 11 countries related to bird flu.

"Our emphasis and our work is on the development challenge," Adams said. "We're not trying to deal with the emerging, immediate crisis but to rebuild veterinary systems, to do the surveillance work that has to be done and to put in place the strengthening of health systems," he told a press conference as IMF and World Bank officials gathered for their annual meeting.

Scientists fear that a significant mutation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that would allow the virus to spread easily among humans could lead to a global flu pandemic with a potentially huge death toll.