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Saturday, October 01, 2005The health organization, a United Nations agency, was deluged with inquiries after Dr. David Nabarro, who was appointed Thursday as the United Nations coordinator for avian and human influenza, cited the 150 million estimate during a news conference. While the health organization's flu spokesman at its Geneva headquarters did not say the estimate was wrong, he said 7.4 million deaths would be more realistic. Scientists have made predictions ranging from fewer than 2 million to 360 million. Last year the health organization's chief for the Asia-Pacific region predicted 100 million deaths, but until now that was the highest figure publicly mentioned by one of the organization's officials. "We're not going to know how lethal the next pandemic is going to be until the pandemic begins," the Geneva spokesman, Dick Thompson, said Friday. "You could pick almost any number" until then, he said, adding that the organization "can't be dragged into further scare-mongering." Exactly so. posted by Sydney on 10/01/2005 01:07:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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