Govt. says pandemic unavoidable

LONDON, July 22 (UPI) -- A British government committee said globalization and lifestyle changes make it inevitable that Britain will be hit with a pandemic of some sort.

The House of Lords intergovernmental organizations committee said the World Health Organization needs to do more to cope with the threat of influenza or some other disease sweeping through the world, the Telegraph newspaper said Monday.

"Estimates are that the next pandemic will kill between 2 million and 50 million people worldwide and between 50,000 and 75,000 in (Britain)," the government report said. "Socio-economic disruption will be massive."

The Lords report described the World Health Organization's organizational structure as "dysfunctional," the newspaper said.