APEC to discuss range of responses to bird flu

APEC to discuss range of responses to bird flu

Rod McGuirk, Associated Press/Canberra

Asia-Pacific health and disaster officials meeting in Australia next week will discuss responses to a possible human pandemic of bird flu, including ways to keep critical services running if the lethal virus afflicts populations, an official said on Wednesday.

The meeting in the eastern city of Brisbane on Monday and Tuesday is expected to be the largest gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum members' chief pandemic disaster managers, a senior Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official said on the customary condition of anonymity.

"The main objective of the meeting is to identify ways in which APEC economies can further cooperate on a regional response to avian influenza, and further prepare for a possible human pandemic," the official told reporters.

APEC nations agree that the H5N1 bird flu strain, which has left more than 60 people dead in Asia and killed or caused the culling of millions of poultry in the region since 2003, poses a significant threat.

All 21 APEC member economies have said they will send representatives to the meeting, to be chaired by the Australian ambassador to the organization, Doug Chester.

"At this stage, we're expecting somewhere around 75 percent of the APEC economies will have their so-called principal pandemic disaster management coordinators at the meeting, and there will be somewhere between 30 and 40 senior health and quarantine officials from APEC economies," the official said.

Most human cases of bird flu have been linked to direct contact with sick birds. But officials warn the virus could mutate to a form that can spread easily among humans, possibly triggering a global pandemic that could kill millions.

The meeting agenda for Monday will include responses to various stages of a pandemic, from localized animal-to-human transmissions, initial human-to-human transmissions, then widespread public transmission of the disease.

On Tuesday, the meeting will deal with issues such as how to maintain essential services in the economic, health and transport sectors.

Any recommendations from the meeting are likely to be on the agenda of the APEC leaders' forum in South Korea in November.

Among observers at the meeting will be non-APEC members Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, as well as representatives of the 16- nation Pacific Forum, the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, attending a Pacific Forum in Papua New Guinea, has announced his government will provide A$8 million (US$6 million) over four years to help Pacific states counter threats of bird flu and other infectious diseases.

A pair of Australian researchers published a report in the Medical Journal of Australia on Wednesday, warning that the country's stockpile of four million courses of influenza drugs will fall short in the event of a bird flu pandemic.

"Australia has an opportunity and a responsibility to promote compulsory licensing and generic production in the Asian region," one of the researchers, public health specialist Dr. Buddhi Lokuge, said in a statement.

Australia lifted on Wednesday a ban on live bird imports from Canada, imposed after three racing pigeons carrying bird flu antibodies were destroyed in quarantine.

However, Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said all birds being imported to Australia must now be tested for the bird flu virus and antibodies before being shipped.