from smh.com.auBird flu is here to stay, say expertsAugust 9,...

from smh.com.au

Bird flu is here to stay, say experts
August 9, 2004


International health authorities tracking the spread of bird flu across South-East Asia have concluded the virus is so deeply entrenched there is no hope of eliminating it - only of controlling it.

The strategy of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation for Animals will now move from slaughtering infected poultry to vaccinating and isolating them.

It reflects a recognition that if avian influenza H5N1 cannot be made to go away, neither can the threat it poses to human health.

The conclusion by the two UN agencies emerged over the past week, after a summit on bird flu held in Bangkok.

A resurgence of the disease in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Indonesia has come five months after those countries and four others declared an end to an epidemic last northern winter that killed 24 of 35 victims, and caused the deaths of 200 million birds.

Joseph Domenech, chief of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation's animal health service, said: "We thought the countries were a bit optimistic when they declared the crisis over and we warned them to be careful before restocking their poultry populations and reopening live markets."


Avian influenza H5N1 is one of several varieties of flu that affect birds, but it arouses special fears among scientists because it has shown it can jump species and infect humans. Three times last century mankind was attacked by strains of flu that caused wide devastation. The worst, in 1918, killed an estimated 40 million people around the world.

Experts believe an avian flu that jumped to humans could cause another world epidemic.

Attempts to control avian flu in Asia, where there are huge commercial farms and vast numbers of backyard poultry, have relied on killing flocks where infected birds have been found.

Recent research findings, though, have demonstrated that migrating wild birds commonly carry H5N1 avian flu, posing a constant risk of reinfection to domestic birds.

Those findings have prompted authorities to consider vaccinating birds when H5N1 flu outbreaks begin, and restricting the movement of birds.

Cox News Service