What The US media is not saying:
The US fears that a worldwide pandemic of bird flu among humans would be "catastrophic".
At an 80-nation conference on the disease, it pleaded with the world's governments not to cover up outbreaks.
Fears are mounting that bird flu, which has killed about 60 people and tens of millions of poultry in Asia, could mutate into a deadly virus that could spread directly among humans.
"If avian flu does mutate to allow easier human-to-human transmission, the results would be catastrophic locally, regionally and globally," Paula Dobriansky, US undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, told the Washington summit yesterday.
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US officials are so concerned about the threat of a pandemic that they have made bird flu the No1 priority at the US Agency for International Development, even above reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"In terms of timeliness of an issue, there is no issue more important now than doing everything in our capacity to have some kind of impact on the front lines, particularly globally, to try and help contain this deadly virus," said USAID assistant administrator for global affairs Kent Hill.
US officials said they hoped countries, particularly in Asia, would heed the way that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome spread around the world in 2003
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16846117%255E23289,00.html