A bird flu conference in Beijing wrapped up yesterday with total pledges of $ 1.9 billion from donor countries and organisations, including the United States, European Union and the World Bank. That money includes about $ 334 million from the United States and nearly $ 250 million from the European Union. The World Bank, which had hoped to raise at least $ 1.2 billion from the conference, has approved a $ 500 million credit line.

A toddler in Indonesia died on Tuesday and was being tested for bird flu and Turkey confirmed its 21st human case, underscoring the urgent need to raise money that will be used to help improve veterinary and health services in poor countries. “The amount asked for is small compared to the cost of a pandemic we are not ready for,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the conference’s official opening in an address by videolink.

The H5N1 virus mainly infects birds but has already killed about 80 people since 2003 and scientists fear it is only a matter of time before it mutates into a form that can pass easily between people, sparking a human pandemic. In the past month the virus has also spread to Turkey, bringing the disease that had previously hit East Asia hardest to the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The World Bank has offered a $500 million line of credit toward its fund-raising target and its president, Paul Wolfowitz, said more resources were urgently needed.

“We know from experience that if the international community does not support these control measures now, the potential cost to the world will be much higher in the long term,” he said. “Past outbreaks have already cost more than $10 billion in economic losses,” he told the conference by videolink. By comparison, the Bank has estimated that a bird flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $ 800 billion.

The European Union has offered $ 120 million and conference host China, hit by some 30 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry last year and at least five human deaths, said it would give $10 million. But there were few details on other contributions and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged further donations from rich countries. “Avian influenza prevention and control are now a priority of the international community,” Wen Jiabao told the conference. “The developed countries, international organizations such as the World Bank and major companies should play a bigger role in fund-raising. We hope they will make active donations,” he said.

Turkish and WHO officials say they have had good luck in quickly treating suspected bird flu victims with Tamiflu, although some patients in Vietnam have died despite the use of the drug and have shown evidence that the virus has already begun to evolve resistance there.

The only other licensed drug shown to work against H5N1 influenza is Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline, but a small US company, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., said the Food and Drug Administration had granted fast-track status for its experimental influenza drug peramivir.

Last month, the FDA gave its approval to begin human testing of intravenous peramivir. The drugs do not cure infection but may help keep it mild. So far, H5N1 has killed just under half of 150 or so people it has infected, but the mortality rate in Turkey appears to be lower for reasons that are poorly understood.

The latest Turkish case is an infected child in Dogubayazit, close to the Iranian border, where four Turkish children have been killed by the virus. Experts fear the virus will spread further unless money is provided to improve veterinary services and animal surveillance. And the more it spreads, the greater the opportunity for chickens to infect people.

“It is going more and more toward the western part of the world,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech told Reuters in Beijing. The big fear is that the virus will mutate just enough to easily spread from person to person, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

<B>Prevention and control effects</B>

“There is a significant shortfall of funds in many affected countries ... which will seriously hamper their prevention and control efforts,” Qiao Zonghuai, Chinese vice foreign minister, told the Beijing conference, sponsored jointly by the Chinese government, the European Commission and the World Bank.

The World Bank estimates that between $ 1.2 billion and $ 1.4 billion will be needed to prepare for and respond to outbreaks. The bank has estimated that a bird flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion.

The US Insurance Information Institute estimated that it could cost the US life insurance industry $133 billion in extra death claims in a pandemic that killed 1.9 million Americans.

Chan, the WHO’s top pandemic expert, said it would be cheaper to pay now to prevent a pandemic than to suffer the costs later. “My argument is, whatever resources you put in place, compared to the possible economic loss in the event of a pandemic is peanuts,” she told reporters at the conference, attended by delegates from 89 countries and more than 20 international organizations.

IRAQ

<B>Tests for bird flu after girl dies in the North </B>

■ Health officials in northern Iraq have sent samples to Jordan for testing for the bird flu virus H5N1 after a 14-year-old girl died in the city of Sulaimaniya, the regional health minister said yesterday. The girl died on Tuesday after falling ill 15 days ago in her home town of Raniya, close to the Turkish and Iranian borders, Mohammed Khashnow told “Reuters”.

A central government health official in Baghdad confirmed a team was investigating.