Australia says regional bird flu exercise likely
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Asia-Pacific leaders will be asked to approve a plan to hold simulated bird flu exercises next year to prepare nations for an avian flu pandemic, Australia said on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum bird flu meeting in Australia this week had agreed on a set of proposals to combat bird flu, including a simulation exercise.
“We will be conducting a region-wide simulation exercise or series of simulation exercises in order to ensure that we are prepared if the worst happens,” Downer said.
Details of the exercises are being worked out, said an Australian official, but is likely to involve computer simulations in the first half of 2006 to test the readiness of countries in the event the H5N1 avian flu virus mutates into a form that spreads easily among people.
“It has been proposed that there be a rapid-response initiative which would include available experts and capabilities and drawn rapidly from the countries of the region,” Downer said, referring to the possible creation of a regional bird flu task force.
Health, agriculture and disaster experts from APEC’s 21-member nations gathered in the Queensland state capital Brisbane for a two-day meeting that ended on Tuesday. They discussed a rapid-response group and also agreed to establish a regional communications system linking bird flu experts.
“These proposals will be put to the APEC ministers meeting in South Korea in a couple of weeks time and to the APEC leaders meeting after that,” Downer said.
The H5N1 virus has infected 122 people in Asia and killed 62, giving a known mortality rate of more than 50 percent since the virus resurfaced in late 2003. But scientists fear the virus will mutate into a form that passes easily among humans. Millions could die and economies crippled.
Avian flu remains primarily a disease in birds, particularly poultry. Tens of millions of chickens and ducks have died of infection or been culled.
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