Bird flu needs fast, transparent response

Bird flu needs fast, transparent response

Darren Schuettler, Reuters/Bangkok

Governments must work harder, faster and be more open if they are
to prepare for a bird flu pandemic, U.S. Health Secretary Michael
Leavitt said on Monday as he began a tour of Southeast Asian
nations hit by the virus.

"Three times in this century we have experienced pandemic
influenza and they will come again. We must be ready," Leavitt
said in Bangkok on the first leg of his week-long trip.

"Our preparations are not yet complete nor are they adequate,"
said Leavitt, who is in the region to urge cooperation in
containing the disease which has killed more than 60 people in
Asia since it arrived in late 2003.

Experts have been saying since then that the H5N1 avian
influenza is the world's top health threat, but policy efforts in
the United States to battle the virus have reached a peak only in
recent weeks.

Leavitt, leading a group of top bird flu experts from UN and
U.S. agencies, will also visit Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the
country hardest hit by H5N1 with 41 deaths.

Leavitt may also visit Indonesia where four people have died
from it since July.

The WHO has urged nations in the region to draw up pandemic
preparedness plans and stockpile antiviral drugs known to reduce
the effects of avian influenza. But experts say impoverished
Cambodia and Laos will need help.

Leavitt did not promise any additional funds to the US$25
million Washington has pledged to Asia's bird flu fight.

He said the best defense against the disease was to find it
quickly and contain it. "That requires all of us to act in a way
that is both transparent and cooperative."

Transparency is a key issue in Asia's war against bird flu
which has also killed 12 Thais and four Cambodians and ravaged
poultry flocks across the region.

Some nations have been accused of blocking proper monitoring
of the deadly virus by failing to report cases or giving too few
samples to scientists.

Experts fear H5N1 could mutate into a virus which spreads
easily among humans, creating a pandemic that might kill
millions.

As scientists work on a vaccine, they need to know about new
outbreaks to see if the virus is evolving, said Anthony Fauci,
Director of the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and
Infectious Disease, who is accompanying Leavitt.

"If there are new cases that are occurring and we don't know
about them, then it's very difficult to request the samples,"
Fauci told reporters.

A vaccine, when it becomes available, could help contain a
human pandemic if it emerged in one of the front-line states in
Southeast Asia. The problem is producing enough to meet the need.

"We don't even have enough right now to handle a situation in
the United States," Fauci said.

"Supply and production capability needs to be addressed before
we can even think about deploying samples in distant areas that
might have an outbreak."