Ill-equipped S Asia looks resigned to bird flu

Since February, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar have culled hundreds of thousands of chickens and shut poultry farms, yet the virus has kept spreading to new areas.

Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia, where hundreds of millions in the countryside live with their livestock.

But fears over the H5N1 flu virus have slashed demand for chicken meat and eggs, ruining the livelihoods of countless workers in India's $7.8 billion poultry industry and even leading to the suicides of nine Indian farmers, an industry group said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and some Indian officials say that once the virus takes hold in any country -- developed or not -- it is just about impossible to eradicate.

"Has any disease which has come in the last 50 years into India gone away?" said H.K. Pradhan, head of India's only animal diseases laboratory that carries out tests for bird flu.

Worse still is a lack of laboratories, trained veterinary personnel and ignorance about the disease.

Officials admit they face an uphill battle against bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic.

In a region where many have little or no access to stretched health services, a mutated strain could spread rapidly among humans, leaving countless numbers of people to fend for themselves.

While officials might feel a sense of crisis, the reaction of many ordinary people is slowly turning from panic to cautious resignation.