WHO warns against bird flu 'scaremongering'  October 18, 2005 -
2:22AM  The World Health Organisation has warned against
"scaremongering" as avian influenza gains a toehold in Europe.
As authorities in Turkey and Romania fight to contain the spread
of the H5N1 virus among flocks, and other European governments
grow increasingly jumpy, fears have risen that the bird disease
could spark a human outbreak here.  But Michael Ryan, the UN
health agency's pandemic alert chief, sought today to calm
public concern about the role of migratory birds, after the
virus spread from its Asian hotbed across Russia and into the
rest of Europe.  "Clearly migratory birds may be implicated in
spreading this disease and we may see avian influenza in other
countries because of that," Ryan said.  "But there are many,
many other reasons for bird die-offs in populations, be it
infectious or toxic," he said when asked about probes into wild
bird deaths elsewhere in south-eastern Europe.  "So over-
associating die-offs in particular bir