Flu shots — the kind for regular, ordinary influenza — could help prevent the spread of potentially deadly avian flu, said state and federal health officials yesterday. They recommended everyone —not just elders, the sick and the very young — get them.

"No one has pre-existing immunity" to bird flu, said Steve Monroe, associate director of laboratory science for the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We are all susceptible."

Monroe spoke during a videoconference that allowed state and federal health officials to discuss possible responses to a pandemic.

"We are encouraging everyone to get their seasonal vaccinations this year," the CDC scientist said.

Flu vaccines now available at doctors offices and health clinics do not directly address bird flu, health officials said, but they can help limit the disease's spread.

Bird flu does not yet travel readily from person to person — in most cases, direct contact with an infected bird is necessary — but scientists worldwide are concerned that the virus will soon develop that ability, Monroe said.

One way it could do so would be to combine with another virus that is already adapted for human-to-human conveyance, a marriage that would allow avian flu to travel around the globe at the speed of a modern airliner.

A more common flu virus could provide a human transmission vehicle for avian flu, said Dr. Sarah Park, deputy chief of the state Health Department's disease outbreak control division.

Vaccination against the more common flu virus could keep that from happening.

"You don't want to become the vessel for that mixing," Park said.

Some strains of avian flu appear to have symptoms similar to regular flu, Park said. When their patients have had flu shots, doctors will be able to rule out regular flu and arrive at a diagnosis more quickly.

In Hawai'i, where visitors from infected regions of the world arrive daily through the state's airports, every bit of prevention helps, said Dr. Paul Effler, state epidemiologist.

Effler told the CDC officials that he hopes shutting down air travel to the state in the event of a pandemic will be avoidable.

Federal authorities have not yet released a formal plan for responding to bird flu. When asked when one might become available, Monroe quoted Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, who recently said the report will be available "soon."

Rachel Eidex, associate director for science at the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, said Hawai'i's dependence on tourism will be taken under consideration when deciding on the best way to respond.

Park and Effler said flu shot supplies this year are better than last, when many high-risk people were forced to go without.

"I've already got mine," said Phyllis Young, a Makiki resident who doesn't fit into any of the groups that health officials previously considered to be at special risk. Young said she'd heard that getting the shot was a good idea in light of the bird flu threat, but that she had gotten it because she hates getting the flu.

Hawai'i residents also can help protect themselves by regular handwashing and by staying away from people who are sick, health officials said.

Kim Elliott, deputy director for Trust for America's Health, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit health policy organization, said employers can help by making sure sick-leave policies encourage those who are ill to stay home, and by making sure workplaces are properly ventilated.

The videoconference was arranged by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.