Asian countries need to work togetherto build a transnational network for bird flu information exchange and experience sharing to control the disease more effectively, a WHO meeting in Hanoi has urged.

At the three-day World Health Organization (WHO) Meeting on Case Management and Research on Human Influenza A/H5N1 which concluded on Thursday, local and foreign delegates said the countries should more actively study the disease's transmission mechanism and develop a proper treatment procedure for bird flu patients, Vietnam News reported Friday.

Ninety-two people in Asia have been infected with the disease since late 2003, of whom 52 have died. Vietnam, hardest hit by bird flu in terms of human infections, has reported 71 human casessince December 2003, of whom 36 have died.

The country has gained remarkable achievements in bird flu treatment, and a local patient is scheduled to be discharged from hospital on Friday after nearly three months of treatment, the report said.

Vietnam, which plans to vaccinate people against bird flu on trial basis in August, hopes to mass produce the vaccine early next year. The vaccines developed by the country's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology have been proved effective on animals.

The meeting, organized by WHO, was attended by some 100 health officials and experts from countries including China, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua