The WHO flew in a team of seven experts earlier this month when tests confirmed the first human cases of the deadly virus in Azerbaijan, a Caspian Sea state that lies on a crossroads between Europe and Asia. "No new cases have been detected," Caroline Brown, a member of the WHO team in Azerbaijan, told Reuters. She said her colleagues would start flying out this week. "From Sunday there will just one expert who will stay on for two weeks," said Brown. The WHO's small permanent staff in Azerbaijan will remain. The World Bank announced on Tuesday it was giving Azerbaijan a $5.1 million loan, repayable over 35 years, to help public health services fight the virus. Public health officials believe some of the victims fell ill when they plucked the feathers from wild swans infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus. The feathers are used in pillows. "As wild birds fly away from Azerbaijan's territory, the danger of the virus spreading is gradually falling," a specially-created state commission on combating bird flu said in a statement. Azerbaijan's Union of Poultry Farmers said on Tuesday sales of chicken meat and eggs had fallen by between 50 and 60 percent since February when the first cases of the virus were identified in birds, making consumers nervous. About 2,500 tonnes of unsold meat is being stored in member companies' warehouses, Union President Aydin Veliyev told Reuters. /www.alertnet.org/ | 
