Death toll from bird flu hits seventy as Thai boy dies

Chinese officials were accused of concealing bird flu outbreaks in several provinces for many months this year, according to comments from a leading virologist in Hong Kong published in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper on Friday.

The death of the 5-year-old boy from the central province of Nakhon Nayok, 110 km from Bangkok, took Thailand’s bird flu death toll to 14 out of 22 known cases since the virus swept through large parts of Asia in late 2003. The boy is said to have contracted the virus from contact with poultry.

The virus is now endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and countries around the world are preparing plans to deal with a pandemic that could cause massive economic losses as well as millions of deaths.

A pandemic could cause a serious recession in the US economy, with immediate costs of between $500 and $675 billion, according to two new reports.

New Jersey based WBB Securities LLC predicted a pandemic could cause a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the US economy.

The World Bank has predicted a pandemic could cost the global economy $800 billion a year. —Reuters