2,600 birds dead of bird flu in China
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-20 08:19

In Hungary, officials announced Wednesday that preliminary experiments with an H5N1 vaccine indicate it works. Health Minister Jenoe Racz said he and dozens of others were inoculated three weeks ago and tests showed that antibodies to the virus had appeared in his blood.

"The results are preliminary, but I can say with 99.9 percent certainty that the vaccine works," he said.

However, the World Health Organization said it was unaware of the details of the Hungarian findings and was unable to comment on their validity or whether the vaccine - even if it works - would be viable.

Scientists in the United States already have reported positive results from tests on their own H5N1 vaccine, but so far have not been able to make the vaccine a practical option because it uses too much of a scarce ingredient and requires two doses to work.

The EU, meanwhile, was trying to assess whether the H5N1 strain of bird flu had spread into Macedonia and Greece. H5N1 already has been confirmed in two villages in Romania and in Turkey.

Global health experts are keeping a close eye on bird flu because they fear the Asian H5N1 strain could mutate and trigger a human flu pandemic.

Asia is considered at greatest risk, but the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization expressed fear that Africa was poorly prepared to respond to a bird flu outbreak.

"One of our major concerns is now the potential spread of avian influenza through migratory birds to northern and eastern Africa," said Joseph Domenech, the FAO's chief veterinary officer.

The bird flu would be even harder to deal with in Africa than in Asia, because weak veterinary services lack the resources to vaccinate or slaughter animals to guard against infection, said Erwin Northoff, the organization's spokesman.