By Tan Ee Lyn HONG KONG, May 23 (Reuters) - Some large companies are starting to diversify their manufacturing bases in Asia and rely less on countries that are considered to be hotspots for an influenza pandemic, consultants said on Wednesday. Scientists have warned of a possible flu pandemic and pointed to the H5N1 bird flu virus as a likely candidate. A growing number of governments and companies have been hammering out contingency plans. "Some of the large companies in the U.K. and U.S. have started to look at alternative sourcing ... and distributing the exposure a little bit more," said Gary Lynch, managing director of consulting firm Marsh USA Inc. Lynch cited one case of a manufacturer that produced most of its masks and respirators in China. "This company decided to build a facility in (South) Korea to increase capacity and they are going to continue to grow their capabilities and diversity," Lynch said. But, by and large, most companies were not doing enough. In a recent survey of 62 Asia-based companies, Marsh found only 21 percent had pandemic contingency plans. Although 50 percent regarded such an event to be catastrophic, only 16 percent thought the chances of it happening were high. While businesses were not ignoring it, tackling a flu pandemic was ranked eighth on their lists of priorities, behind items such as quality, financial failures and natural disasters. "The pandemic is lower ... than many other business risks but the consequences are so great that we think businesses need to give more attention to it than they have," said James O'Brien of The Albright Group LLC consulting firm. "A pandemic may take two to six months to run its course, and it is too long for business to risk its supply chain." Industries most at risk were those dealing with mining, utilities, health and service, Lynch said. There was also the danger of companies assuming that a flu pandemic would turn out the way SARS did in 2003 -- stubbed out in a matter of a few months. "There is a level of confidence they will be able to deal with it rather quickly and it will be controlled," Lynch said. But scientists and health experts have warned that a flu pandemic would be far more serious as the level of infection is expected to be far higher, bringing down far more people and killing a lot more of them -- perhaps millions. SARS, the symptoms of which are similar to those of flu, spread as far afield as Canada from south China before it was brought under control in 2003. It killed close to 800 people out of 8,000 known to have been infected. Although H5N1 remains a bird disease, experts say the virus could spark a pandemic if it ever spreads efficiently among people. On Wednesday, Indonesia said a 5-year-old girl had died of bird flu while Vietnam reported its first suspected human infection since late 2005.
