UN warns of deadly flu pandemic

A top UN public health official has warned that a new influenza pandemic could come anytime and claim millions of lives unless officials take action now to control an epidemic in Asia.

"We expect the next influenza pandemic to come at any time now, and it's likely to be caused by a mutant of the virus that is currently causing bird flu in Asia," he said.

The 1918 influenza pandemic killed more than 40 million people, and there were subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968 that had lower death rates but caused great disruption, he said.

In a new pandemic, Nabarro said, "the range of deaths could be anything between 5 and 150 million".