US citizens in Hong Kong have been advised to build a three-month stockpile of food, medicine and water in their homes in case of a bird flu pandemic, a news report said Tuesday.
An advisory has been sent out to all 60,000 registered US citizens in the former British colony urging them to prepare the stockpiles ahead of the coming winter flu season.It suggests stockpiling 4.5 litres of water per person per day and to prepare water purification equipment in case of "complete infrastructure breakdown", the South China Morning Post reported.
The advisory also suggests they stock up on non-perishable foods, soap, alcohol-based hand wash, medicines, vitamins, flashlights and a portable radio, the newspaper said.
Six people died and 12 others were infected in the first modern outbreak of bird flu that attacked humans in Hong Kong in 1997.
Since then, however, the city of 6.8 million has built up sophisticated safeguards against the virus and avoided further human cases despite a spate of regional outbreaks.
Scientists believe bird flu may cause deaths on a global scale greater than the Spanish Flu of 1918, which killed up to 40 million if the virus mutates to jump from human to human.
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