Updated: 1:04 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2003

A virulent strain of flu that has hit the United States is present in Hong Kong, which may not be able to cope with a major outbreak, an American expert warned on Friday.
Robert Webster, a virology professor, told a news conference that Fujian flu coupled with a new strain of bird flu could pose serious problems in a city which is also on alert for a return of the deadly flu-like SARS virus.

"There is not much influenza yet going on in Hong Kong but the (Fujian) virus is already present," he told a news conference. "It is expected that Fujian flu will become more serious in the next month or so in Hong Kong."

Webster, a professor at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, is also director of the U.S. Collaborating Center of the World Health Organisation dealing with animal flu viruses.

His warning came just days after a five-year-old boy in Hong Kong was confirmed with a rare strain of bird flu, known as H9N2.

The boy has already recovered, but Webster said that the threat remained. "If H9N2 and Fujian flu co-circulate and start mixing, then you have a potential of a big problem," he added.

Webster noted there was no vaccine for either H9N2 or H5N1, a strain of bird flu that hit the city in the late 1990s, let alone any new strain arising from mutation.

H5N1 killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997 and 1998. A SARS outbreak killed almost 300 people in the city earlier this year.

Webster predicted that if there was a global epidemic of flu, neither Hong Kong nor the United States would be able to cope.

"Only very few places in the world, maybe Canada, maybe Ontario, maybe the Netherlands, maybe Britain, very few places in the world will be able to handle it," he said.

"Drugs are available but the drugs will run out overnight if there is a pandemic. The other thing necessary in addition to making vaccine is to stockpile some drugs," he added.

He said the Fujian strain had killed at least 23 children in the United States, deaths which he believed could have been avoided had the children been vaccinated.

While no specific Fujian flu vaccine is available, there are shots that can offer some immunity.

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Source: Reuters, Msn