International conference "mildly optimistic" about bird flu
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《英国医生杂志》
Contrasting, if not conflicting, assessments of the likelihood of a human avian influenza pandemic greeted 600 participants from more than 100 countries at the opening session of a major three day conference at the World Health Organization in Geneva on Monday.
"I would say that the feeling was one of mild optimism," declared the meeting's chair-woman, Louise Fresco, assistant director general of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. "There have been success stories."
Asked whether he shared this mild optimism, David Nabarro, the senior United Nations' system coordinator for avian and human influenza, said that he was optimistic "about the scope for international cooperation in preventing or delaying a human influenza pandemic." But he added that "the lack of general preparedness around the world was terrifying. We have to hope that the H5N1 virus doesn't mutate to humans before a year or two."
In his opening remarks, Lee Jong-wook, the director general of WHO, declared, "It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus—most likely H5N1—acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza."
Delegates gather in WHO's boardroom to discuss the avian flu risk
Credit: FABRICE COFFINI/AFP/GETTY
A WHO Influenza Pandemic Handbook for Journalists, distributed to 200 reporters covering the conference, says that the transfer from birds to humans is not a sure or simple matter. "Based on the present evidence, the H5N1 virus does not easily jump the species barrier to infect humans. The small number of human cases, despite the tens of millions of poultry infected, over vast geographical areas, for more than two years, supports this conclusion."
In all, 121 cases of human beings infected with H5N1 have been identified of whom 60 have died. More than 150 million chickens and ducks have died from the disease or been culled.
Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, told participants that "this influenza virus has been very well known for centuries. What is new about the current global situation is the behaviour of the current H5N11 `Asian strain.'"
The conference was jointly sponsored by WHO, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health. All four organisations and their top representatives, Dr Nabarro, and speakers from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, Japan, and the Netherlands all agreed on one point: the only way to prevent or delay a human influenza pandemic is to "stop the disease at its source," by controlling the H5N1 virus in domestic poultry.
As Samuel Jutzi, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's animal production and health division, put it, "the core of the problem is the circulation of the virus in domestic poultry. Priority action for solving the problem is therefore at the level of the animal. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said that it may well be necessary to review the practice of humans living in close cohabitation with animals in parts of Asia.(Paul Ress)
"I would say that the feeling was one of mild optimism," declared the meeting's chair-woman, Louise Fresco, assistant director general of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. "There have been success stories."
Asked whether he shared this mild optimism, David Nabarro, the senior United Nations' system coordinator for avian and human influenza, said that he was optimistic "about the scope for international cooperation in preventing or delaying a human influenza pandemic." But he added that "the lack of general preparedness around the world was terrifying. We have to hope that the H5N1 virus doesn't mutate to humans before a year or two."
In his opening remarks, Lee Jong-wook, the director general of WHO, declared, "It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus—most likely H5N1—acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza."
Delegates gather in WHO's boardroom to discuss the avian flu risk
Credit: FABRICE COFFINI/AFP/GETTY
A WHO Influenza Pandemic Handbook for Journalists, distributed to 200 reporters covering the conference, says that the transfer from birds to humans is not a sure or simple matter. "Based on the present evidence, the H5N1 virus does not easily jump the species barrier to infect humans. The small number of human cases, despite the tens of millions of poultry infected, over vast geographical areas, for more than two years, supports this conclusion."
In all, 121 cases of human beings infected with H5N1 have been identified of whom 60 have died. More than 150 million chickens and ducks have died from the disease or been culled.
Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health, told participants that "this influenza virus has been very well known for centuries. What is new about the current global situation is the behaviour of the current H5N11 `Asian strain.'"
The conference was jointly sponsored by WHO, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health. All four organisations and their top representatives, Dr Nabarro, and speakers from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, Japan, and the Netherlands all agreed on one point: the only way to prevent or delay a human influenza pandemic is to "stop the disease at its source," by controlling the H5N1 virus in domestic poultry.
As Samuel Jutzi, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's animal production and health division, put it, "the core of the problem is the circulation of the virus in domestic poultry. Priority action for solving the problem is therefore at the level of the animal. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said that it may well be necessary to review the practice of humans living in close cohabitation with animals in parts of Asia.(Paul Ress)