WHO says SE Asia remains biggest bird flu danger
WHO says SE Asia remains biggest bird flu danger
Reuters, Manila
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it was
concerned that European countries facing the spread of bird flu
would divert funding and attention away from Southeast Asia, the
most likely epicenter of a human pandemic.
Officials in Europe are braced for an outbreak of the deadly
H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in
Asia since 2003, after tests confirmed the disease in poultry in
Romania and Turkey.
No human cases have been reported in Europe.
"There's a lot of anxiety (in Europe)," said Peter Cordingley,
spokesman for the WHO in Manila.
"Quite clearly, the result of this could be that governments
might focus on domestic preparedness and forget the fact that
ground zero is Southeast Asia."
Cordingley said the feared mutation of the virus into a form
that is easily transmitted between humans was most likely to take
place in Southeast Asia, where millions of birds have been culled
in an attempt to limit the disease's spread.
"(U.S. President) George Bush has said it and he got it right.
He said you can't fight bird flu within the boundaries of the
United States. You have to go to its genesis, and that's out
here."
Experts say the fight against bird flu in Asia is being
hampered by huge differences in wealth between countries.
Some countries still have no stockpiles of the expensive anti-
viral drugs that could help limit a human pandemic and have poor
public health infrastructure.
The WHO said on Friday it needed $260 million from the
international community to fight the spread of bird flu in Asia.
To date, about $20 million had been committed to help fight
the disease in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam, where most
of the deaths caused by the H5N1 strain have been reported. The
WHO hopes to generate more pledges for Asia from wealthier states
during meetings on bird flu in coming weeks in Canada, Australia
and Switzerland.
"So far, there have been good indications but we don't have
the money in the bank yet," Cordingley said.
"While we are concerned that money shouldn't get diverted into
Europe, we're pretty confident we're going to get the money we
want."