Pacific countries on risk of bird flu

[Sally Furniss]

Pacific countries on risk of bird flu

Some small countries in the Pacific region may get infected with bird flu, as the disease had contaminated poultry in Indonesia's Papua Province, which was bordered with Papua New Guinea, an UN official said here on Monday.

Papua New Guinea was currently on threat of being contracted by the virus, said Laurence J. Gleesen, Regional Manager of Emergency Center for Transboundary Disease Control of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

"If they arrived into Papua New Guinea and I think other nations in the South Pacific would also be at risk. I don't mean Australia. I mean some of the small nations, because there are rapid movement of people and other products," Gleesen told reporters on the sideline of the 28th Regional Conference of FAO for Asia and the Pacific Region which kicked off here on Monday morning.

It was last month when the Papua poultry were contracted with H5N1 virus, according to the official.

"We know that this disease has recently arrived in the province of Papua. It was certainly moved by the poultry and the poultry products, so the spread of the disease is clearly a threat to Papua New Guinea," he said.

Twenty six out of 35 people infected by the disease in Indonesia have died, according to the World Health Organization ( WHO).

Last week, five Indonesian people from a blood-related family were infected with avian influenza virus according to test by the country's laboratory. Three of them have died.

http://english.people.com.cn/200605/16/eng20060516_266013.html

[hawkeye]

Re: Pacific countries on risk of bird flu

I just came across this today..The article is dated 9/20/06

Western Pacific countries urged to prepare for "worst-case" flu pandemic scenario

(Tahitipresse) - The World Health Organization has advised Western Pacific countries to prepare for "a worst-case scenario such as an influenza pandemic" in view of an increasing threat from emerging infectious diseases.

The WHO not only urged urgent steps be taken to prepare for an immediate response to emerging infectious diseases, such as avian influenza and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The United Nations health agency also urged public health officials to focus on the mid- and long-term battle against these diseases.

"Many countries and areas do not have the required national and local core capacities in place, such as rapid response and containment activities, to avoid serious health threats, which have the potential to cause substantial economic and social disruption," according to a WHO press release.

In the central and eastern Pacific, there have been no cases of bird flu infection reported involving migrating birds, local poultry or humans. That includes French Polynesia, all other Pacific Island destinations and Australia and New Zealand.

However, the French Polynesia Public Health Ministry announced on Sept. 6 the first delivery of an antiviral drug used to treat bird flu. The arrival of 485,000 Tamiflu capsules and 248,600 face masks are being stockpiled as a protection should an outbreak of the virus occur in French Polynesia.

The stock of Tamiflu is not available for prescriptions for treating the more common A and B influenzas, the Health Ministry said. The French state furnished the Tamiflu and facemasks as part of a national government plan to battle bird flu.

Tamiflu is used for humans above the age of one year who have bird flu symptoms that have appeared within the previous day or two. Typical systems of the avian influenza include sudden fever and chills, coughing, muscle pain, headaches, fatigue and weakness. Tamiflu is a product of Roche Laboratories, Inc.

The WHO comments were made during the 57th session of the WHO's regional committee meeting for the Western Pacific, which opened in Auckland on Monday and continues through Friday (New Zealand time). The meeting involves health ministers and representatives from 27 Western Pacific member states.

This is the third straight year that avian influenza has figured prominently at the meeting. After the meeting got underway in Auckland, the WHO announced from its Geneva headquarters that a three-year-old Iraqi boy in Baghdad had been confirmed as having survived a mild case of bird flu last March, the first confirmed human infection in the capital.

The retrospective confirmation of Iraq's third case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus increased the world total for this year to 100 confirmed human cases, 66 of which have proven fatal. Those totals continue to exceed the 97 confirmed human cases, with 42 deaths, reported for all of last year.

During the past three years there have been 247 confirmed human cases, with 144 of them proving fatal, the WHO reported. In Asia, there have been six human deaths in Cambodia, 14 deaths in China, 49 deaths in Indonesia, 16 deaths in Thailand and 42 deaths in Vietnam. The virus also has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"Many health systems were undermanned and under-resourced when SARS struck, causing great human suffering, enormous fear and staggering economic losses," Dr. Richard Nesbit, the WHO's acting regional director for the Western Pacific, told the Auckland meeting on Tuesday (New Zealand time).

The bird flu virus outbreak began a few months after the WHO declared the containment of SARS in July 2003.

On the eve of the start of the WHO's Auckland meeting, Dr. Nesbit told the media that a risk of a flu pandemic remains high despite public fatigue with the issue. However, he said the WHO is hopeful the bird flu virus will do less damage than during the past three years during Asia's upcoming colder months.

"The virus seems to be very embedded in the environment and, in our view, the risk of a pandemic continues unabated," Dr. Nesbit said. "Recently we've seen new outbreaks in poultry in Cambodia and also in Thailand, besides seeing continuing outbreaks in Indonesia."

The majority of confirmed human cases of bird flu have been traced to contact with infected poultry or migrating wild birds. Generally, it is difficult for humans without such contact to catch the bird flu. But public health officials worry that the virus could mutate into a new form that spreads easily among people.

In Singapore on Monday, David Nabarro, the UN's senior coordinator for avian and pandemic flu, said the global effort to fight bird flu and prepare for a threatened pandemic will cost more than the $1.9 billion already pledged. He added that more support is needed in Indonesia, which is "seriously affected" by the virus, the Bloomberg news agency reported on the Internet.