A THAI man was identified yesterday as the 67th victim of the bird flu virus that is spreading around the world as EU health ministers met for emergency talks on how to tackle a likely pandemic.

Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, and her counterparts met in Hertfordshire to discuss how best to prepare for a worldwide outbreak. Plans include a two-day pandemic simulation, to be carried out in Europe within a month, to test the EU’s readiness.

Concern about the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu centres on fears that it may mutate into a form that passes easily among people, creating a pandemic that may kill millions.

Possible clusters of bird flu among members of one family in Indonesia have raised concern among health experts that this feared mutation may be happening. Officials confirmed yesterday that a father and son are currently being treated at a Jakarta hospital for symptoms of the virus, but the diagnosis has not been confirmed.

All the human deaths from avian flu have so far been in Asia but the H5N1 strain, carried by migrating birds, was detected this month in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania.

In Brussels, the EU said that more tests on samples from dead birds were needed to determine whether Greece had become the first EU country to be hit by the virus.

Preliminary tests on samples from turkeys on the Aegean island of Oinousses were negative for H5N1 but it may take several days to be confirmed by the Veterinary Laboratory Agency in Weybridge.

At the meeting of EU health ministers, also attended by Markos Kyprianou, the European Commissioner for Health, officials discussed containment strategies but urged the public to stay calm as the virus posed no immediate risk to people.Delegates from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Croatia also attended. “The World Health Organisation confirmed that there had been no increase in the risk of pandemic flu,” Ms Hewitt said.

Mr Kyprianou, addressing a press conference in London last night, outlined plans for the preparedness exercise, called Common Ground, which he said would focus on “communication between key players in the event of a pandemic”.

The simulation is not expected to involve health workers. Officials in command centres across Europe will react to imaginary scenarios, fed to them through the EU’s Early Warning and Response System and via EU-wide teleconferences.

It will not involve any “real world” mobilisation of emergency services and health staff, but will focus on decision-making at command centre level. A day after launching contingency plans for the NHS, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, reiterated that a pandemic was inevitable but emphasised that preparations were in hand.

Thai officials said that Bang-on Benpad, a 48-year-old farmer, had become the first Thai killed by the disease in a year, and the first human fatality since an Indonesian woman died last month. The virus has killed at least forty-four people in Vietnam, thirteen in Thailand, six in Indonesia and four Cambodians. The Thai man, who killed and then ate an infected chicken, was the country’s 13th victim. His son, 7, who had also been in close contact with chickens, is being tested at a Bangkok hospital. The European Commission extended a ban on the import of pet birds and feathers to most of Russia after a case was confirmed in a village 200 miles south of Moscow.

Charles Schumer, a US senator, said that Roche, the Swiss pharmaceuticals company, had agreed to increase the number of production licenses for its Tamiflu drug, the most effective antiviral against H5N1.

The Chinese revealed that they had culled almost 100,000 birds after 2,600 birds, mostly chickens, were killed by the flu virus on a farm in its northern Inner Mongolia region. There were no reported human cases. Controls were ordered on travellers who now face infra-red body temperature checks and shoe sterilisation.

In Vietnam, which has been vaccinating millions of poultry, it was reported that 180 ducks had the virus, the first cases since July. Taiwan confirmed its first case since 2003. The virus was found in birds smuggled from China aboard a freighter in the Taiwan Strait. All the birds were killed.

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