asean we must unite

ASEAN 'must unite' against bird flu
by Bernice Han in Singapore
20dec04
SOUTHEAST Asia must unite to combat the spread of a deadly bird flu virus which has the potential to become the next human influenza pandemic, global health experts warned here Monday.

With evidence suggesting the virus, known as H5N1, is now endemic, policymakers must step up regional surveillance to control and eradicate the disease, they said on the sidelines of a closed-door meeting on the issue.

“It's common sense... we need better surveillance,” said Francois-Xavier Meslin, coordinator for strategy, development and monitoring from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He was speaking to reporters shortly before the meeting of a task force set up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

They have a combined population of some 500 million, many of them packed into congested cities.









“We need a lot of collaboration between the ministries of health and agriculture,” he said, adding that veterinary services from ASEAN member countries were already working together.

Meslin also warned that bird flu could become a much bigger health crisis than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 if the avian influenza strain mutated into a form that could be transmitted between humans.

“If it happens, which is not yet proven, it's going to be worse than SARS,” said Meslin.

“SARS was mildly transmissible between humans. It was mild compared to a flu virus.

“If it's a full blown flu virus, you know how easily you can transmit flu... so it's a very highly contagious disease compared to SARS.”

The WHO has said it cannot predict when the next pandemic will strike but the arrival the avian influenza or “bird flu” virus, which is now widely entrenched in Asia, signals “the world has moved closer to the next pandemic.”

Up to 50 million people worldwide could die from the next influenza pandemic, according to previous WHO estimates.

During a November meeting of 13 Asian nations in Bangkok, the WHO had called for major changes in the way Asian nations raise animals to lessen the risk of bird flu through better hygiene and improved controls at farms and markets.

The high density of poultry and humans in several Asian countries has been blamed for the bird flu outbreak and the way to deal effectively with the disease can only start in Asia, said Hans Wagner, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's senior regional animal production and health officer.

“The avian influenza at the moment is a crisis of Asian dimension,” Wagner said.

“We have already proposed that ASEAN should take a leading role in the control of the disease here in the region... so we expect from this meeting a major step forward in the control and in the organisation of the control here in the region,” he told reporters.

In his opening address to the task force meeting, Singapore's Minister of State for National Development Cedric Foo described the bird flu threat as the most pressing health problem facing the region.

“Scientific evidence suggests that the HSN1 virus, which causes HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza), is now endemic in the region,” Foo said.

“Overcoming this threat is therefore the single most pressing agricultural and public health issue facing us today.

“A co-ordinated regional approach to prevent, control and eradicate HPAI is crucial to overcoming this threat.”