A LEADING Manchester doctor has criticised the government for being badly prepared for bird flu.

As reported infections continue to spread across the globe - most recently in Indonesia - Dr Kailash Chand has accused the government of having too few drugs and too little planning.

So far the disease can only be passed from birds to humans in close contact and has not mutated into a form which can pass from human to human. But doctors fear that such a mutation could kill up to 50,000 in Britain without drugs.

Dr Chand, a GP and local representative of the British Medical Association, said: "What the government's response seems to me is some kind of denial. The Department of Health is not accepting that an avian flu epidemic could be a reality.

"A lot more needs to be done. GPs on the front line have had no planning advice from the government on how to deal with a large scale outbreak, but your local GP would be a first point of call.

"I'm not trying to be alarmist, but we need to have a better policy so that nobody suffers. The government cannot close its eyes any more."

Overdue

His warning comes after reported outbreaks of bird to human infection in Kazakhstan and central Asian parts of Russia at the end of August, though there have been no reported cases in Europe.

North west health chiefs are adamant that there is no immediate threat from bird flu, though they do admit that the we are overdue some form of flu epidemic.

Hugh Lamont, of the north west Health Protection Agency, said: "We have done a lot of work to prepare for a flu pandemic. It won't necessarily be bird flu, as there is no evidence yet of the virus transferring from human to human, and it is still very difficult to catch.

"But there is a flu pandemic every 30 to 40 years, and the last one we had was in 1968, so we are overdue one."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "If an outbreak did occur we would first ask GPs to identify any new strain, then isolate any sufferers while we pinpointed and vaccinated against the virus. If infection carried on there are whole raft of social measures, including banning football matches and pop concerts, that we could take."

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