World health experts warn that major flu outbreak overdue.

2004 APR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A devastating outbreak of a new flu strain could happen at any time and cause widespread deaths, U.N. health officials told a meeting of global experts bracing for the next pandemic.

"For the last 36 years we have had no pandemic" but the average time between widespread flu outbreaks has been 27.5 years, said Klaus Stoehr, chief influenza expert at the World Health Organization.

"People are saying we are overdue," said Stoehr. "There is a time bomb ticking. We just don't know what time it is."

WHO called the 3-day meeting of more than 100 health experts to lay the groundwork for responding quickly with vaccine development and other measures to reduce the number of deaths.

"We should expect a huge morbidity and mortality" if a pandemic strikes, Stoehr said.

Efforts to prepare for a pandemic will also help to reduce the impact of the annual flu epidemic, which kills 500,000 to 1 million people around the world each year, WHO officials said.

The recent outbreak of bird flu in Asia has underscored the need to be ready even though that strain of virus - while passing from poultry to people - has apparently not been a form that spreads easily from person to person, officials said.