Prepared Against Bird Flu Pandemic
Preparing the world to face an influenza pandemic has improved after an “extraordinary global response” to the threat of avian influenza in recent years, said yesterday the world body’s coordinator for the flu, David Nabarro.
Nabarro said that there is still a risk of a pandemic if the avian flu virus mutates into a form that passes easily between humans. The H5N1 flu strain is highly pathogenic, has caused the death or destruction of nearly 300 million birds since it resurfaced in Asia in 2003.
While H5N1 rarely infects people, has killed 241 of 383 infected in 15 countries. Concern about the disease in the world increased in 2005, as cases were known in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Nabarro also said in a press conference of the UN that “there has been an extraordinary global response to the virus from spreading (…) (…) which has meant that now the continuous transmission of the virus occurs only in four, perhaps five countries.
The situation improved
Elsewhere, he added, “the situation is actually improving.”Countries generally have invested massively to improve the functioning of their veterinary services, and security (…) about the birds that are reared has generally improved.
Nabarro said the UN is concerned primarily with Indonesia, which has the highest number of human cases, but also Vietnam, Bangladesh and Egypt. The situation in Nigeria “has really calmed down this year,” he said.
He cited South Korea and the United Kingdom as examples of countries that responded vigorously to recent bird flu outbreaks. A total of about 2,700 million dollars were committed to combat the disease in a series of international conferences.
The world is also much better prepared than it was in 2005 to deal with a possible pandemic, with nearly 160 countries have plans in place, Nabarro said. United States, Australia and Singapore conducted simulations to see how their financial sectors react to an outbreak of bird flu.
“What these exercises are showing is that it is not expensive to prepare for a pandemic and that if you’re ready for a pandemic, it also helps you prepare for other contingencies,” he said.
But Nabarro, who warned in September 2005 that between 5 million and 150 million people could die in a flu pandemic was expected “soon”, said yesterday he was not saying the threat was gone.
The most serious pandemic of modern times, in 1918, left about 40 million people dead. The H5N1 “still can rekindle a smoldering forest fire.” “I still can return at any time if you do not care,” he said.
“We anticipate that there will be another pandemic at some point could become (…) (in type that is spread) from human to human at any time (…) The chance is still there and that has not changed,” he said.