GENEVA - The World Health Organization denies it is recommending that visitors to China for this summer's Olympic Games should pack an antiviral drug to protect themselves against avian flu.
The denial comes in the wake of a report Monday by the Italian news agency Ansa, which said WHO is warning tourists going to Beijing for the August sports event to arm themselves with the drug Tamiflu "in case of exposure to the disease virus.''
The Ansa story quotes Walter Pasini, director of the WHO Collaborative Centre of Medicine for Tourism in Rimini, Italy.
But WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said Wednesday that Pasini does not work for the international agency itself and the report quoting him has "set off alarm bells'' because it is erroneous.
"We would categorically deny that WHO's ever made any kind of recommendation to this effect or that there would be any need or justification ... in any context, including going to the Olympics in Beijing,'' Hartl said.
Pasini could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
The WHO's website shows there have been 30 cases of avian flu, also known as H5N1, reported in all of China since 2003 -- three of them so far this year -- and 20 of them ended in death.
The hardest-hit country has been Indonesia, with 133 cases, including 108 deaths. Worldwide, there have been 382 cases, with 241 deaths since 2003, the website said.
