Global vigilance needed to counter bird flu: UN coordinator

While the deadly bird flu virus had not spread as widely as feared in Africa, vigilance was still needed across the world to counter its advance and deal with its impact on humans, a senior UN official said on Monday.

"The disease didn't spread quite so profoundly in Africa as we had expected it might, but still the number of viral outbreaks in 2006 were much greater than any previous year," said Dr. David Nabarro, the Senior United Nations Systems Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza at a press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

"The situation with regard to avian influenza in the world is that in 2006 we did see more than 30 countries reporting outbreaks," he said.

He noted that the virus continued to affect humans, with 256 people known to have been infected, and 151 of them dying; a distressingly high mortality rate.

He expressed "very great concern" over Indonesia, where practically the whole country was under threat.

There have been 43 deaths out of 53 human cases so far in Indonesia this year, a significant proportion of the 73 human deaths recorded worldwide since the start of 2006, according to UN World Health Organization (WHO) reports, which rank the Asian region as the hardest hit by the virus.

There is also widespread fear among experts that the H5N1 strain of the virus could mutate, gaining the ability to pass from person to person and in a worst-case scenario, unleashing a deadly human pandemic.

Nabarro said that it would remain a "major animal health issue" for years.

"We think it's going to stay that way for five years, perhaps 10 years to come," he said, noting that the virus was highly pathogenic, "yet at the same time can seem to survive in certain communities of birds without symptoms... and secondly, it does seem to be spread by a combination of wild birds and trade."

Nabarro, fresh from a fact-finding trip to Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, said that changes in commercial bird rearing practices and better preparedness for dealing with possible outbreaks were needed to deal with such a long-term problem.

He noted that such changes were already taking place, praising some countries for their responses to the disease, including better preparation and improved veterinarian services.

However, he stressed that more needed to be done, especially in Indonesia, where the virus has been found in 30 out of the 33 provinces.

He urged Indonesia to move fast to completely redesign its animal health services, noting that the government was committed, together with the UN, to making this happen but "there's such a lot to be done."

The UN coordinator stressed the need for continuous vigilance, and for better preparedness for any human outbreaks worldwide.

He noted that the WHO had released its Global Action Plan for vaccine development, so that the international community would have a better supply of vaccines in case of a pandemic outbreak.

The new plan, based on advice from more than 120 experts in immunization and other fields, warns that the world is far short of the amount of vaccine needed to counter a possible outbreak of pandemic influenza and calls for immediate action to remedy this situation.

Source: Xinhua