Bird flu crisis needs more money, quick response-UN
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Global health experts unveiled a plan on Wednesday for Asia to avert a pandemic of avian flu and raised to a quarter of a billion dollars the funding needed to fight the virus for the next two years.
A meeting of potential donor countries would be held by December to raise $150 million to protect humans from the disease, on top of the $100 million for animal care sought earlier by the three UN health agencies meeting in Malaysia.
“If you fail to control this one, the social, economic and human loss will be, I’m sure, a lot more than the $250 million,” Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Western Pacific, told a news conference.
“This is a very good investment.”
The H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus has killed 54 people of 154 infected in Asia so far. With proper response and precaution, experts believe they can eradicate it within 10 years, warning that it could rage out of control otherwise.
The WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health had gathered in Kuala Lumpur this week to craft a battleplan against bird flu.
After releasing a thick document on Tuesday that outlined a broad 10-year plan, they came up with specific recommendations as the meeting ended on Wednesday, demanding that strict standards be imposed immediately in places where humans, fowls, and other animals raised for meat came into contact.
REWARDS FOR FARMERS
“It is vital to urgently change or even end a number of farming practices that are dangerous to humans,” Joseph Domenech, the FAO’s chief veterinary officer, said.
“These include the way chickens, ducks and pigs are raised in close proximity to each other, often with no barriers between them and humans. Another concern is wet markets, where animals are often slaughtered in unsanitary conditions.”
Domenech said strains of H5N1 can spring from the exchange of genetic material that takes place when people are exposed to contaminated animals or blood, feathers and carcasses in such situations.
More than 140 million chickens have been killed in Asia to halt bird flu, causing millions of dollars of losses.
To ensure that culling is not sacrificed for economic reasons, Domenech said the three UN agencies proposed rewarding farmers who reported outbreaks.
The plan also focuses on small-scale and backyard farms, where the majority of human cases have been reported since 2004.
It recommends teaching farmers and their families about high-risk behaviour, while making sure poultry breeders separate different species, keeping them apart from each other and humans, and carrying out vaccinations if necessary.
“The political will has to be there to carry these through,” said Dewan Sibartie, deputy head of the scientific and technical department of the World Organisation for Animal Health.
“There is no Plan B.”
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