TOKYO, January 12, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Probing ways to prevent the killer bird flu virus from spreading and turning into a pandemic, officials from 21 countries and organizations kicked off a two-day conference on the matter in the Japanese capital Thursday, January 12.

The meeting, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), is to discuss early response measures if and when a potential human pandemic strain emerges, as well as how to stockpile antiviral medicine and other supplies, reported Agence France France-Presse (AFP).

"We must try to ensure that we will be ready to respond instantly with all the weapons at our disposal should the early signs of influenza pandemic appear," said Shigeru Omi, WHO director of the Western Pacific Regional Office.

"By the time we leave here, we must all have a clear understanding of what has to be done to enable us to contain a virus with pandemic potential," he said in an opening speech, according to AFP.

Experts said Thursday that doctors need to speed up testing for bird flu and governments must jointly stockpile supplies to stop the virus whose threat to the world is growing by the day.

"As the new human cases in Turkey show, the situation is worsening with each passing month and the threat of an influenza pandemic is continuing to grow every day," Omi told delegates.

He said early detection was key to battling bird flu but that health workers were stretched to their limit.

"The improvement of surveillance in rural areas is the most difficult challenge for us," Omi told reporters after the first session of the conference.

Hitoshi Oshitani, a doctor on the WHO's bird flu task force, told AFP it takes nearly 17 days on average for suspected bird flu cases to be confirmed locally and by the WHO.

"It would be too late for containment," Oshitani said.

The greatest fear is that bird flu will mix with a conventional strain of influenza, creating a highly contagious and lethal virus.

Another WHO medical expert, Keiji Fukuda, told the conference that all countries needed to work together to ensure a rapid response to bird flu.

"As this kind of rapid movement requires a great deal of resources and expertise, we see that training, working on the development and building stockpiles both at the regional and international level is necessary," he said.

Narongsakdi Aungkasuvapala, deputy permanent secretary at Thailand's ministry of public health, said that "improving measures to detect bird flu is the most important issue" facing his country.

"A large part of the population raises chickens in their households, so it is essential for us," he told AFP, referring to anti-flu measures.

Omi said part of the problem was convincing rural populations of the risks.

Authorities often order the killing of chickens at infected farms without compensating the owners, discouraging poultry farmers from coming forward, he said.

More than 70 people have died in Asia since 2003 from avian influenza, which is spread by contact with sick poultry. Fears heightened this month when three people died in Turkey, the first victims outside Asia.

Japan in December promised Southeast Asian nations 135 million dollars in aid to fight the spread of bird flu.

Tokyo said this week that 77 poultry workers had tested positive for bird flu in the first-ever human infections involving the weaker strain of the virus that has hit its chicken industry.

The farm workers in Ibaraki and Saitama prefectures, both north of Tokyo, were infected at some point in the past but currently show no symptoms, the health and welfare ministry said Tuesday.

But officials said the world's first confirmed human cases of a weaker strain of bird flu were too "risky to ignore", even though none of those affected has health problems.

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