time to buy again imo., page-5

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Bird-flu-pandemic-almost-certain-Abbott/2005/10/25/1130006108226.html

Bird flu pandemic almost certain: Abbott
October 25, 2005 - 2:54PM

Health Minister Tony Abbott says there'll almost certainly be a bird flu pandemic.

Mr Abbott, who is meeting with health ministers in the Canadian capital Ottawa to discuss bird flu, said it was important that all nations took the threat seriously.

"There will almost certainly be a pandemic at some stage," Mr Abbott told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"But whether it will be next month, next year, or next decade, we just don't know.

"We do know that there have been three pandemics in the last 100 years.

"The first in 1918-19 was very, very serious indeed. It killed, perhaps, 50 million people around the world, including about 12,000 people in Australia.

"The two subsequent pandemics in the late 1950s and the late 1960s were much less severe. They killed about a million people each around the world, including about 500 each in Australia."

Mr Abbott said the risk of a human strain of bird flu was greatest in south and east Asia which did not keep as careful a watch on poultry flocks as Australia.

Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said the shortage of health workers would limit Australia's ability to handle a bird flu outbreak.

She said a proposed move by the federal health department to bring retired doctors and nurses out of retirement in the case of a bird flu epidemic was a short-term political fix.

"The Howard government must invest in training more doctors and nurses and look at better ways of retaining health professionals," Ms Gillard said.

"If Mr Abbott intends on relying on retired doctors and nurses he should put to the Australian community exactly how he intends on doing that.

"Tony Abbott should also explain why he is contemplating bringing doctors and nurses out of retirement and if he actually has a long-term plan to reverse the shortage his government has created."