BANGKOK, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The work to develop a human vaccine for avian influenza is on schedule, and a vaccine is expected to be available shortly for vaccine manufacturers to begin small-scale production for safety and efficiency studies, said a WHO official here on Thursday.

    "More needs to be done, of course," said Dr. Bjorn Melgaard, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to Thailand at the opening session of the FAO/OIE Emergency Regional Meeting on Avian Influenza Control in Animals in Asia.

    "WHO is continuing to ask all affected nations to send strains of avian influenza to WHO's global network of reference laboratories. Studying these strains and all their variants is essential to the understanding of the development of this disease and its human pandemic potential," he added.

    "The threat to global human health is that the avian influenza virus can acquire the ability to easily infect human. It then can develop the ability to pass between people. In such a situation weface the risk of major pandemic," he warned.

    More than 30 human cases have been confirmed in Vietnam and Thailand after having been exposed to sick birds, and around 70 percent of these people have died. About 100 million birds have died or have been culled, he said.

    "This proportion tells us the virus has yet to acquire the ability to move efficiently from human to human," he cautioned.

    He warned that "the threat to human health will last as long asavian influenza persists in the environment. This is why pandemic preparedness is one of our priorities, the others being reduction of human exposure, surveillance and research."

    The official stressed the need for human and environmental safety, including the protection and monitoring of people involvedin the culling of flocks, safeguarding any children that might be exposed.

    He also called for safe disposal of animal carcasses to preventviruses from being released into the environment which could end up affecting animals and humans alike.

    Long-term surveillance of human and animal health, rapid and transparent reporting is essential in combating the avian flu epidemic which is not yet under control, he said.

    The three-day meeting was organized by the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) in collaboration with the WHO, Japan Livestock Technology Association (JLTA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand.

    It brought together the national chief veterinary officers, delegates to the OIE of 22 Asian countries and around 15 countriesfrom other regions of the world. Enditem