JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Africa must find resources to back international efforts to stop the spread of bird flu and help prevent a human pandemic, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. African nations cannot afford to ignore the threat of H5N1 bird flu and should make early investments to detect and wipe out the virus in poultry and wild birds, Alan Hay, director of the WHO Influenza Centre told Reuters. "The danger is that you might have something where it could be smouldering and then all of a sudden it shows up in the human population," Hay said on the sidelines of the Roche Diagnostics Forum, which focuses in healthcare in Africa, in Johannesburg. "We know it's a difficult task and asking a lot but surveillance (is more cost effective) than dealing with a pandemic." The main concern is that if undetected the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a deadly pandemic similar to the Spanish flu in the early 1900s that claimed tens of millions of lives. The spread of bird flu could also have devastating economic consequences, particularly in rural areas, in the event of mass culls to curb the spread of the disease or if international trade restrictions were imposed. The WHO has agreed to help establish regional centres focused on avian flu in five nations in sub-Saharan Africa -- Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Madagascar and Kenya -- where "surveillance is less than adequate," said Hays. He stressed the onus was on national governments to muster enough resources to keep the centres going in the world's poorest continent where health facilities are often basic and diseases can go undiagnosed. Bird flu, which originated in Asia, is known to have infected at least 250 people and killed more than 150 of them. Egypt is the only African country to have confirmed deaths -- seven in total. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Ivory Coast are among countries which have reported the presence of H5N1 in poultry and birds.
