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WHO calls for every country in the world to make plans to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic that is likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year.

BEJIJING, Nov. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- WHO calls for every country in the world to make plans to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic that is likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year.

The World Health Organization calls for every country in the world to make plans to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic that is likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year.

    Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Region of the WHO, made the comment at a news conference of 13 Asian health ministers on Friday.

    He said influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle, with one appearing every 20 to 30 years and no country will be spared.

    While commenting on the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has defied efforts to eradicate it in several Asian countries, including Thailand, Omi urges the intensifying of international efforts to avoid pandemics.

    The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 killed upwards of 20 million people. WHO experts say the next could infect up to 30 percent of the world's more than 6 billion people and kill up to 7 million.

    The Asian health ministers, from China and 12 other Asian countries, promised they would make plans for a pandemic and cooperate to stave it off.

    In a joint statement at the end of the two-day meeting, they pledged to work together to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests for humans and conduct research urgently needed to provide more information on the virus.

    (Text: CRIENGLISH.com, photo: Reuters)