Despite significant advances to deal with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu in the past two years, countries must maintain their vigilance and cooperate in the face of a possible pandemic, according to a joint U.N. and World Bank report released Friday.
The new report said "that the capacity and understanding around communication about bird flu has greatly improved," Senior U.N. System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro told reporters at the U.N. Headquarters.
The report said that although a massive global effort to control the deadly bird flu strain has led to improved responses to outbreaks in poultry in many countries during the past year, there is a continuing risk of a virus mutation which results in severe and easily transmitted influenza in humans, potentially precipitating an influenza pandemic.
It said that the pandemic threat has led most governments to improve services to detect, contain and lessen the impact of dangerous pathogens. However, many national pandemic plans are not sufficiently operational and the coordination of pandemic planning between countries needs greater attention, the report said.
"Pathogens are becoming more mobile as a result of increases in international travel and trade and changes in ecosystems," Nabarro said. "They cause diseases that threaten the health and well being of the entire world population."
"The long term security of the human race requires all nations to prepare together so that when new disease outbreaks and pandemics do occur, responses will be adequate and meet the needs of all people and not just a fortunate few," he said.
Countries must bolster their readiness to respond to not just the health, but the economic and social consequences of a potential pandemic as well, Nabarro said, calling for global solidarity coordinated national strategies for dealing with pandemics.
He encouraged governments, private entities and voluntary agencies to work together, devising, testing and then updating multi-sect oral preparedness plans.
During the last three years the H5N1 virus strain spread rapidly in East Asia and then on to locations in North and West Africa, in central Europe and as far west as England. By 2006, the virus was found in at least 55 countries and territories. But by mid-2007, international efforts had helped reduce to six the number of countries in which the disease is known to be entrenched, the report said.
The report, based on data provided by 143 nations, found out that 95 percent of the countries surveyed responded that they are planning for a pandemic; several have taken steps to ensure continuity of vital infrastructure in such a contingency; and some have tested their plans in simulation exercises. Nearly three quarters have launched communication campaigns to raise awareness of avian and human influenza.
Source: Xinhua
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