HANOI, Nov 10: As more deaths from bird flu have been reported in Vietnam and Indonesia over the past week a major international meeting in Geneva has been looking at how to cope with a potentially catastrophic pandemic that could kill millions.
Scientists fear the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people since late 2003, could combine with human flu variants to enable it to pass easily between humans.
The following is a timeline of how bird flu, which took hold in Asia where it remains active, spread before emerging in Europe:
May 1997: A three-year-old boy becomes the first of six people to die in Hong Kong of a mysterious virus, later identified as H5N1, in the first known human deaths from the strain.
Feb 2003: A nine-year old boy returns to Hong Kong after contracting bird flu during a family trip to Fujian province in southern China. A WHO probe discovers one of his sisters had died of the disease in a Fujian hospital. The South China Morning Post reports that his father died later in Hong Kong after twice being discharged from hospital with the disease.
April 2003: A different avian flu strain, H7N7, is said to be responsible for the death of a veterinarian in the Netherlands, who visited an infected farm.
Dec 2003: South Korea confirms an outbreak of the virus and slaughters more than 2.5 million chickens and ducks in a bid to halt the outbreak. A five-year-old boy recovers from the disease in Hong Kong after apparently contracting it in China.
Jan 2004: Vietnam says the suspected number of human deaths has risen to 13 as Taiwan announces an outbreak of different strain of bird flu. Outbreaks are reported in Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, China, and Thailand.
Feb 2004: First cases confirmed in the United States and Canada while in Thailand the virus is detected in a panther, a tiger and domestic cats.
March 2005: North Korea officially announces it is affected by the disease.
July 2005: First of three fatalities announced in Indonesia.
Aug 2005: Confirmation that the disease has spread to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the vast Russian region of Siberia.
Oct 7, 2005: Ducks in the Danube delta in Romania are reported to be infected. The virus is confirmed as H5N1 eight days later.
Oct 13, 2005: The infection which has killed thousands of turkeys in north-western Turkey is confirmed as H5N1.
Oct 17: Discovery of the first suspected case in Greece, on the island of Oinousses, close to the Turkish coast.
Oct 19: Russia, China and Romania confirm new outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 bird flu.
Oct 21: Britain says a parrot that died in quarantine had bird flu, while Croatia confirms the virus was found in 12 swans found dead in a lake.
Oct 25: China confirms another outbreak while Indonesia suffers its fourth fatality from the disease.
