Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://news.smh.com.au/curb-bird-flu-with-prevention-not-cure/20080410-2515.html
Curb bird flu with prevention, not cure
April 10, 2008 - 8:08AM
Indonesia and other nations battling bird flu need to put more effort into conventional disease control rather than relying on a vaccine to stop the virus spreading, an Australian expert has warned.
Dr Peter Daniels of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory has told a conference in Canberra of the latest problems in creating, producing and delivering vaccines in the wake of an outbreak among poultry.
The virulent H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed 236 people and millions of animals in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Laos, Egypt, Romania, Turkey and Russia.
The World Health Organisation has called for rigorous management of avian flu on farms to limit the risk of human infection and an ensuing pandemic.
But Dr Daniels said managing a potential outbreak with vaccines was becoming increasingly problematic.
New strains of avian flu collected in field surveys in Indonesia were recently used to test the efficacy of existing poultry vaccines, with disturbing results, he said.
Many of them did not provide the necessary protection against infection by the latest virus strains.
And while donors are standing by with millions of dollars to put into proven vaccines, the quest to develop ones that can deal with the most recent strains continues.
"The problem is compounded by the fact that bird flu is evolving separately in all these different countries, and in some cases it may require more than one vaccine per country to deal with the different strains," Dr Daniels told the Conference on Vaccine and Immunotherapy Technologies on Wednesday.
He said countries like Indonesia, which processes 1.5 billion poultry every year, would also require enormous quantities of vaccine on tight deadlines that might not be met.
"For this reason we are urging that countries like Indonesia put more effort into controlling transmission in the first place - not letting the virus spread - in the same way we checked the spread of horse flu in Australia," Dr Daniels said.
"We need to stop infected poultry from moving round the country transmitting disease, and to stamp out outbreaks of these new strains at the source."
? 2008 AAP
Curb bird flu with prevention, not cure
April 10, 2008 - 8:08AM
Indonesia and other nations battling bird flu need to put more effort into conventional disease control rather than relying on a vaccine to stop the virus spreading, an Australian expert has warned.
Dr Peter Daniels of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory has told a conference in Canberra of the latest problems in creating, producing and delivering vaccines in the wake of an outbreak among poultry.
The virulent H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed 236 people and millions of animals in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Laos, Egypt, Romania, Turkey and Russia.
The World Health Organisation has called for rigorous management of avian flu on farms to limit the risk of human infection and an ensuing pandemic.
But Dr Daniels said managing a potential outbreak with vaccines was becoming increasingly problematic.
New strains of avian flu collected in field surveys in Indonesia were recently used to test the efficacy of existing poultry vaccines, with disturbing results, he said.
Many of them did not provide the necessary protection against infection by the latest virus strains.
And while donors are standing by with millions of dollars to put into proven vaccines, the quest to develop ones that can deal with the most recent strains continues.
"The problem is compounded by the fact that bird flu is evolving separately in all these different countries, and in some cases it may require more than one vaccine per country to deal with the different strains," Dr Daniels told the Conference on Vaccine and Immunotherapy Technologies on Wednesday.
He said countries like Indonesia, which processes 1.5 billion poultry every year, would also require enormous quantities of vaccine on tight deadlines that might not be met.
"For this reason we are urging that countries like Indonesia put more effort into controlling transmission in the first place - not letting the virus spread - in the same way we checked the spread of horse flu in Australia," Dr Daniels said.
"We need to stop infected poultry from moving round the country transmitting disease, and to stamp out outbreaks of these new strains at the source."
? 2008 AAP