Japan pledges bird flu aid to ASEAN at regional gathering
Japan pledges bird flu aid to ASEAN at regional gathering
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Japan pledged US$135 million in aid for Southeast Asian nations on Monday to fight bird flu, a Japanese official said.
The assistance was announced by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a meeting with Asian leaders to talk about boosting economic ties, as well as fighting terrorism and other problems shared by the region.
Japan's aid package includes help to provide a stockpile of Tamiflu for 500,000 people in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.
World demand has been growing for Tamiflu, a drug believed to lessen the severity of the disease of people who contract influenza from poultry infected with bird flu. According to the World Health Organization figures, 69 people have died of bird flu since 2003 in Asia.
The Japanese aid includes the $2 million help Koizumi announced during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last month in Busan, South Korea to improve the World Health Organization's surveillance and drug distribution capacities.
The official said that Japan will host an international conference Jan. 12-13 in Tokyo to discuss the early containment of a possible pandemic.
Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that about $46.8 million will be used for buying Tamiflu, influenza test kits and sanitary clothing.
Another $49.1 million will be distributed through international agencies for vaccination projects and $19.3 million for steps to strengthen their control of the epidemic among chickens, said Kyodo.
It said that for each of the next three years, Japan will provide training on countermeasures against bird flu to at least 100 people from Asia -- including researchers, medical personnel, animal health specialists and administrative officers in charge of health care.
Southeast Asian nations agreed on Monday to create a stockpile of antiviral drugs to combat the spread of bird flu throughout the region.
ASEAN also pledged to work more closely on tackling cross- border threats like bird flu by developing a regional approach and sharing resources.
"We must be in a state of preparedness," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters.
He added that the stockpile would be available to any ASEAN country that might need it.
While the bird flu virus remains relatively hard for people to catch and is spread almost exclusively through human contact with birds, health officials fear it could mutate into a virus that could pass from person to person and set off a global pandemic.
Malaysia also reiterated an offer made at the World Health Organization meeting in Geneva last month to establish a regional center for influenza.
"We seek the support of (ASEAN) member countries to establish this regional WHO collaborating center in Malaysia, since the existing few WHO reference centers for human influenza are located outside the ASEAN region," Abdullah said.
"It will be Malaysia's contribution towards global health security."