Despite three more human cases of bird flu in Viet Nam, bringing the total there since mid-December to 28, there is currently no evidence that the virus is spreading easily from person to person, according to the United Nations health agency’s latest update on a disease that in a worst-case scenario could kill tens of millions people worldwide.

With Viet Nam confirming 10 more human cases of bird flu, bringing the total since mid-December to 24, 13 of them fatal, the United Nations health agency is stressing the critical need for full information to assess of the risks of a pandemic that in a worst-case scenario could claim tens of millions of lives worldwide.

A United Nations conference on bird flu in Asia today called on the international community to urgently help with hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for “vital changes” needed to prevent the virus from mutating into a global human influenza pandemic, which in a worst-case scenario could claim tens of millions of lives.

The global community needs to step up the battle against bird flu in affected Asian countries to avoid a potential global human influenza pandemic, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today.