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.