The South Pacific country Fiji has been warned that if the Bird Flu virus hits the country, it could kill 5,000 people.

The Fiji Sun, a suva-based daily newspaper, reported Thursday that the warning has been given by the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Specialist at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr. Narendra Singh.

Singh said Fiji could be headed for a pandemic that could affect about 240,000 people of whom 12,500 could be hospitalized and thousands killed.

Singh note that Fiji encountered such a pandemic in 1918 when an influenza epidemic killed 9,000 people or about five percent of the total population.

He said bird flu is already prevalent in Indonesia, has reached parts of the Pacific and could reach Fiji.

Singh said bird flu could be transmitted to human beings from fowls and also from one human being to another.

He said Fiji's 39-million U.S. dollar poultry industry could also be at risk.

Singh said Fiji's health sector has been so occupied with many reported outbreaks of diseases this year that there has been little time to prepare for a bird flu pandemic.

Source: Xinhua