China asked to spread the word about bird flu

David Nabarro the United Nation's top official on bird flu has urged China to share its experience with other countries on how to tackle the disease threatening to become a pandemic.

Nabarro on his third visit to China as UN co-ordinator for avian influenza, says he has tried to convince Chinese officials that the knowledge and experience they gained fighting bird flu could help the rest of the world.

In Beijing, he met with Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who heads the country's bird flu command and with officials from the ministries of health and agriculture who have been working on the bird flu issue.

He hopes they have the opportunity to interact with colleagues from governments who are just beginning the struggle, and share with them some of the trials and tribulations they have faced.

According the UN, China had the world's largest poultry population, with 20 percent of the global total.

It also had an estimated 50 percent of the world's pigs and 90 percent of the world's geese, in which the virus is also carried as well as other poultry and wild migratory birds.

Julie Hall, the UN co-ordinator for avian influenza in China says China had also undertaken the world's biggest vaccination campaign, pledging to vaccinate all of its 14 billion poultry and the world can learn from them.

Nabarro's visit to China was to take look at the situation there and persuade China to contribute its expertise and information to the global bird flu fight.

China has apparently agreed to share a large amount of virus samples from poultry outbreaks and Hall says the shipping process and logistics were currently being worked out.

Other UN officials, however, say they would like to see China share more consistently.

China has reported 11 deaths from bird flu out of 16 human infections and there have been 34 outbreaks of bird flu among poultry since the beginning of last year.

Over the past three months, Nabarro says bird flu has spread widely infecting birds in 30 new countries and territories, in Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

Nabarro will also visit Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia where the H5N1 virus is considered endemic in poultry stocks.

Nabarro says that some of the $1.9 billion pledged by the international community in January, for bird flu and pandemic preparedness has started reaching countries hit hard by the virus.

The World Bank has agreed to fast-forward a $50 million loan for Nigeria to battle bird flu, with the funding coming from money earmarked for the disease prior to the $1.9 billion pledge.

A U.S. health expert attending a Beijing health conference has called for more infectious disease research in Asian countries, and for scientists to closely track changes in the H5N1 virus in preparation for a potential pandemic.

Bird flu resurfaced in Asia in 2003 and has to date killed at least 108 people.

It remains predominantly a bird disease which is hard for humans to catch, but health experts fear it will mutate into a form easily spread among people,triggering a worldwide pandemic.