Health ministers from around the world will gather in Ottawa next week, intent on strengthening global response to an influenza pandemic that could grow out of the Southeast Asia bird flu outbreak.

Armed with lessons learned from the SARS outbreak of two years ago, the meeting comes as the world looks to Canada for help in mounting an appropriate defense.

That's one of the reasons why the meeting is being hosted next week, according to David Butler Jones of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

"Everything is connected," he told CTV News. "Infections don't respect borders or religions or policies -- they just move."

The meeting will ask some serious questions, including how rich nations can help the less affluent not only look for signs of a new disease, but also test and report results quickly.

Another challenge is how to make and distribute enough anti-viral drugs, not to mention the issue of understanding a new virus fast and thoroughly enough to develop an effective vaccine in time to stem a global pandemic.

Noting that Canada is already in a state of vigilance for any such outbreaks, Dr. Arlene King told Canada AM on Wednesday that the term 'high alert' really is meant to describe a technical state of readiness.

She added that this involves gathering, analyzing and disseminating information to frontline public health authorities across Canada to make sure they're aware of the situation unfolding across the Pacific Ocean.

First appearing last fall, the avian flu -- which has a mortality rate of almost 100 per cent in birds -- has ravaged chicken farms in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, killing millions of birds. Ducks, geese and quail have also been affected, King said.

Officials plan to issue an international agreement at the end of the meeting that will answer at least some of the questions of how to head off an international disaster.

Doomsday criers may have some ammunition.

Bird flu has taken another human life in Thailand, as a 48-year-old man became the 67th person to be killed by the virus that is steadily creeping from Asia to Europe and towards Africa.

Also, the European Union has prohibited imports of feathers and pet birds from Russia, where the EU extended their import ban.

In China, the virus killed thousands of birds in breeding facility and another Thai man a man developed pneumonia after eating chicken that may have been infected with avian flu.

The European Union has banned imports of feathers and pet birds from two regions of Russia now with bird flu. And now China is trying to quell another outbreak.