Experts scramble to contain bird flu<\/p>\n
Richard Ingham, Agence France-Presse\/Geneva<\/p>\n
Experts in human and veterinary health met here on Tuesday to
\nplan action for containing the spread of bird flu as the perilous
\npoultry disease claimed a further life in Vietnam and inflicted a
\nsuspected sixth fatality in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"The prime goal is to reduce viral excretion and the
\ncirculation of the virus in fowl and another domestic birds,\"
\nsaid Bernard Vallat, director-general of the World Organization
\nfor Animal Health (OIE), the global watchdog for safe trade in
\nmeat and farm animals.<\/p>\n
\"Reducing the virus (in birds) reduces the risks of a human
\npandemic.\"<\/p>\n
Vallat said that early detection and reporting of the H5N1
\nvirus was vital. For every 48 hours that elapses between an
\noutbreak and action, \"the costs multiply thousands of times,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Since it erupted among ducks, chickens and geese in Southeast
\nAsia two years ago, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza has
\nclaimed scores of lives and inflicted more than US$10 billion in
\neconomic damage, much of which is being shouldered by poor
\nfarmers.<\/p>\n
Vietnam meanwhile confirmed on Tuesday its 42nd death from
\nbird flu, a 35-year-old man from Hanoi who died on Oct. 29, while
\non Tuesday, a 16-year-old girl died on Tuesday three days after
\nshe was admitted to a hospital in the capital Jakarta with
\nsymptoms of the disease.<\/p>\n
Before confirmation of the latest death in Vietnam, the WHO
\nsaid there had been 63 deaths from bird flu since the end of
\n2003, out of 124 known cases of human infection.<\/p>\n
More than 150 million fowl have been slaughtered in a bid to
\nstop the disease at its source, but these desperate measures have
\nfailed to stop the spread.<\/p>\n
The methods used are time-honored, but many countries cruelly
\nlack the resources to carry them out.<\/p>\n
The classic panoply of measures include tighter surveillance
\nof poultry flocks, culling of diseased birds, compensation for
\naffected farmers and preventative vaccination of healthy birds,
\nVallat said.<\/p>\n
But a crescent of countries in Asia, from China to Indonesia,
\nwhere H5N1 is now endemic, lack local veterinarians and a
\nreliable and extensive monitoring network to give them an early
\nwarning of outbreaks.<\/p>\n
Vaccines, face masks, means of slaughtering birds swiftly and
\ncleanly may also be in short supply.
\nHelping these and other exposed countries will require money, as
\nwell as human and technical help, Vallat said.<\/p>\n
He pointed to an existing array of international standards for
\nveterinary health in animal commerce, laboratories for testing
\nsamples and financial mechanisms, but stressed \"external
\nresources will be needed.\"<\/p>\n
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the OIE have
\ndrawn up an emergency plan for filling these gaps that would cost
\naround $175 million, $102 million of which would go to Asia and
\nthe rest to Eastern Europe and Africa.<\/p>\n
Only $30 million have been contributed so far, officials from
\nthose organizations said last Friday.<\/p>\n
Transported by migrating birds, which are the natural
\nreservoir for bird flu, the virus has spread into Russia and
\nparts of Europe and now Africa, the continent with the least
\nresources to face the crisis, is vulnerable.<\/p>\n
The wider it spreads, the greater the risk that it could
\nmingle with a conventional flu strain, becoming a pathogen that
\nis not only lethal, as it is now, but also highly contagious.<\/p>\n
No-one would have immunity to this new virus, which could
\nspread like wildfire in an era of jet travel and open economies.<\/p>\n
Three similar flu pandemics caused by new viruses erupted in
\nthe 20th century, the biggest of which -- the \"Spanish flu\" of
\n1918-9 -- caused almost as many deaths as World War II, by some
\nestimates.<\/p>\n
At the start of the three-day conference in Geneva on Monday,
\nUN's World Health Organization (WHO) Lee Jong-wook said it was
\nonly a matter of time before a human pandemic occurred.<\/p>\n
Without adequate defenses, there could be millions of deaths
\nand economic costs of up to $800 billion, the conference was also
\ntold.<\/p>",
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