Bird flu is 'a very difficult disease to transmit from animals to humans. It does happen, but it happens very rarely,' says a WHO official.

The World Health Organization said there was "appropriate alarm" each time the virus, particularly the virulent H5N1 strain, shows up in a new country. But it was important to keep the risk to humans in perspective, WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said.

"People confuse it with pandemic influenza, but they're very different diseases," Thompson said. "If people just paid attention to the human risk" from bird flu, they'd understand that "the possibility of infection is very low."

Bird Disease

Health officials have been tracking the H5N1 virus strain out of concern that it could mutate into form more easily transmitted between people, and trigger a human pandemic.

At the moment, however, the flu is principally a bird disease. H5N1 has killed about 60 people in Asia, but they were mostly poultry farmers infected directly by birds.

"The spread of H5N1 to poultry in new areas is of concern, as it increases opportunities for further human cases to occur," a WHO statement said. "However, all evidence to date indicates that the H5N1 virus does not spread easily from birds to infect humans."

People with fever or respiratory symptoms should be checked because the early symptoms of H5N1 infection mimic those of many other common respiratory illnesses, WHO said. "False alarms are likely."

H5N1 Strain

In Turkey, the H5N1 strain was detected after 1,800 turkeys died on a farm in Kiziksa, 120 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Istanbul, but the Turkish government said it has contained the outbreak.

In Romania, authorities have identified a few cases of bird flu, but established only it was the H5 subtype. Further testing is underway to determine the strain.

WHO noted that Romanian and Turkish authorities have undertaken recommended procedures, and said it was helping with testing and comparing with samples of the virus from Asia.

WHO recommends that authorities check any flu-like symptoms among people handling poultry, and that travelers avoid contact with live animals in areas with H5N1 outbreaks, Thompson said.

Direct Contact

In Southeast Asia, where bird flu has killed at least 60 humans, health authorities were monitoring people who work with poultry and develop flu-like symptoms.

"What usually happens is that these people turn out to have normal flu and colds," Thompson said.

Bird flu is "a very difficult disease to transmit from animals to humans. It does happen, but it happens very rarely," he said.

People should also stay away from dead wild birds, WHO said.

"Direct contact with infected poultry or surfaces and objects contaminated by their droppings is considered the main route of human infection," the WHO statement said. "Exposure risk is considered highest during slaughter, defeathering, butchering, and preparation of poultry for cooking.

"There is no evidence that properly cooked poultry or poultry products can be a source of infection."