A World Health Organization official on Thursday called for stronger surveillance in animals for evidence of infection with H5N1 bird flu in order to curb its spread. The official also urged stronger efforts to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus to new species of animals and to humans.

Small but growing number of H5N1 avian influenza infections have been detected in humans around the world in recent years

The developing avian influenza panzootic and the growing possibility of a pandemic bring to the fore the existential questions for humanity of climate change and the destruction of public health, both of which must be stopped in order to control the growing threats.

The World Health Organization on Thursday urged countries to step up surveillance for bird flu after the first case was detected in a child in the United States.

In 2009, H1N1 bird flu caused the first global flu pandemic in 40 years, with the first infections detected in California. More than 12,000 people died around the US, and nearly 61,000 people were infected. The “pig flu” was constantly in headlines as communities tried to track the number of sick and dead from the contagious virus.

A World Health Organization official on Thursday called for stronger surveillance in animals for H5N1 bird flu in order to curb its spread. "What we really need globally, in the U.S. and abroad, is much stronger surveillance in animals,

GENEVA >> A World Health Organization official on Thursday called for stronger surveillance in animals for evidence of infection with H5N1 bird flu in order to curb its spread.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, is calling for increased surveillance globally of animal populations that are known to be susceptible to H5N1, including wild birds,