Take risk seriously, state arms urged-Fiji

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Take risk seriously, state arms urged

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

THE Ministry of Health yesterday called on other arms of the state to take seriously the need to prepare for an outbreak of a pandemic in Fiji.
Director of Public Health, Doctor Timaima Tuiketei said while the Health Ministry was doing its part, there was a lack of communication and support from some Government ministries.
She said there was a need for an agency to co-ordinate a network at national level.
Dr Tuiketei said she believed it was the role of another ministry to take the leading role in co-ordinating the Fiji National Influenza Pandemic Plan.
Permanent secretary Malakai Tadulala admitted that some Government agencies and departments were treating the issue lightly.
He pointed out that at the height of the SARS outbreak, the Prime Minister's Office took the preparatory work under its wing.
Goodman and Fielder executive Ian Curtis was critical about Government failing to sanction the plans on a national level.
He said fishing boats were docking in at the Suva wharf.
He said some of them were believed to be carrying all sorts of diseases.
Mr Curtis said it was important that the whole system was sanctioned to remain vigilant and alert about any diseases.
"These diseases will come unannounced and we need to coordinate the whole exercise better," he said.
Mr Curtis said they invested a lot of money into formulating their own contingency plans in the event that an outbreak of the bird flu was experienced in Fiji.
"However, to put together another plan to be in line with the national network would be a big task," he said.
Goodman Fielder owns Crest Chicken, Fiji's largest poultry producer.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=75867

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Re: Take risk seriously, state arms urged-Fiji

Official lays out outbreak figures

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

AN estimated 262,500 people could be infected if a pandemic influenza outbreak hits Fiji, says the Director for Public Health, Doctor Timaima Tuiketei.
Dr Tuiketei was speaking at the Fiji Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Testing Exercise at the Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbour yesterday.
An estimated 13,125 people could die of the pandemic, she said.
The pandemic would be a combination of the normal influenza virus and the avian bird flu that has affected the poultry industry in various parts of the world, killing about 200 people.
A pandemic is when humans infect humans whereas the avian influenza is at bird to human level.
Dr Tuiketei's estimates were based on estimates taken from the United States on the estimated impact of the next pandemic to strike the US.
She said the next question would be whether it was necessary to stockpile vaccines and anti-viral drugs for such an outbreak.
Based on the estimates, she said it would cost a total of $495million for the anti-retro viral drug course, at $90 per drug per person.
Dr Tuiketei said the risk of importation of the avian influenza was through:
air/sea travel;
poultry trade; and
migrating birds.
Dr Tuiketei said the migratory birds who were known carriers of the avian flu followed the West Pacific flyway which included the Western Pacific.
She said two of these birds had been sighted in Fiji recently.
Dr Tuiketei said some key features of the International Health Regulations were surveillance, reporting, notification, verification, response and collaborative activities.
She said the influenza pandemic threat was in the phase 3 alert stage and had become a national looming threat and upcoming crisis that required a national commitment from the highest level.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=75863

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Re: Take risk seriously, state arms urged-Fiji

Horrors of the last one

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

DURING the last pandemic to hit Fiji an outbreak of the Spanish Flu in 1918 the state was forced to assemble mobile soup kitchens at the doorsteps of infected families, says a pandemic specialist.
Dr Narendra Singh pandemic preparedness and training specialist with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community said within three weeks of the Spanish Flu outbreak, 85 to 95 per cent of Suva's population was affected. "Medical services were overwhelmed and the Colonial War Memorial Hospital was filled with so many cases that staff abandoned recording all but one nurse who was more or less severely infected," he said.
"Students of the then medical school were brought in to reinforce the depleting force left to look after the sick." Fiji, he said, begged Australia for medical reinforcements but the Australian contingent to Fiji was stopped from leaving. Soup kitchens were set up to help infected families who could not care for themselves. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=75866