- World Health Organization experts initiated a two-day exercise on Wednesday testing responses to a simulated neurological disease outbreak in Thailand, Vietnam and Canada. "We clarified issues that will serve us extremely well in the future, we now understand the issues extremely well," said David Heymann, Assistant Director-General on Health Security and Environment. WHO specialists were alerted to the outbreak at 5:00 am (0300 GMT), with simulated newscasts, news reports and country health expert reports beamed to a control room where a team including logistics, communications and laboratory science experts are monitoring the situation. The WHO team decided to alert all 194 member states to the risk of an epidemic outbreak. The two-day exercise beginning Wednesday involved about 100 WHO staff including the WHO's Director-General Margaret Chan, as well as staff in the three countries. Consultants are also watching as the simulation unveils, and they are expected to give an evaluation of the procedure at the end of the exercise. - AFP