BANGKOK, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The world is closer to the next flu pandemic that may kill up to 7 million people, a World Health Organization expert warns.
A worldwide outbreak is closer than ever because of bird flu, says Klaus Stohr, coordinator of WHO's global influenza program.
Bird flu has killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam this year and killed six in Hong Kong in 1997.
Stohr predicted more than a quarter of the world's estimated 6.4 billion population will fall ill from influenza, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
"There are estimates that would put the number of deaths in the range of 2 to 7 million and the numbers of people affected will go beyond a billion because 25 to 30 percent will fall ill," he told a news briefing at a meeting in Bangkok of 13 Asian nations and cities.
Stohr said two U.S. companies are developing vaccines for testing but the world faces a tricky winter and spring period as no vaccines would be available until at least March.
Officials have said a vaccine would not prevent a pandemic but could save millions of lives.
