UN warns bird flu will be around for quite a while

A warning has been issued by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with regard to the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

At a meeting in Rome of international bird flu experts the UN agency has said that despite the significant improvement in global response to the H5N1 virus over the past few years, the virus remains entrenched in several countries and will continue to spread.

Joseph Domenech, the FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer, says the virus had been rapidly detected, controlled or eliminated in some 15 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East where it had appeared in the last six months.

Domenech says most affected countries have been very open about new outbreaks and were taking the H5N1 threat seriously, are better prepared and have improved their response systems.

He says however there was no room for complacency, and a potential human influenza pandemic cannot be ruled out as long as the virus continues to exist in poultry.

Domenech referred to recent H5N1 outbreaks in Bangladesh, Ghana, Togo, Czech Republic and Germany as a clear reminder that the virus is spreading to new countries and re-appearing in previously infected countries.

He is particularly concerned about the situation in Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria and says bird flu is an event the international community will have to live with for years.

Domenech says improvements are needed in poultry markets in places such as Indonesia where infected birds are routinely mixed up with healthy ones, putting the entire stock at risk.

Experts also stress that changes to local practices must be made in a way that did not alienate local people and cultural, religious and other factors must be handled sensitively so that poultry rearing and trading are not forced underground.

The FAO says containing and eradicating the virus will require a long-term financial and political commitment from governments, including modifying or changing high risk poultry production and marketing practices to ensure safer supply.

The three-day meeting will hopefully enable experts to identify ways to step up their battle against the virus, with both short-term measures for containing it in poultry populations and measures to eradicate it completely.

According to the latest figures to date 315 people from a dozen countries have been infected with the virus, resulting in 191 deaths and more than 200 million birds have died from either the virus or preventive culling.