Experts meet to draw up bird flu battle plan

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Health experts meet on Monday to draw up a global strategy to halt the spread of deadly bird flu and prevent it from developing into a human pandemic in which millions could die.

The deadly H5N1 virus is known to have killed 63 people in four Asian countries and led to the culling of 150 million birds worldwide. It has recently been detected in birds in eastern Europe and experts expect it to reach the Middle East and Africa in the near future.

The virus remains hard for people to catch and is passed on almost exclusively through human contact with birds.

But scientists say it is steadily mutating and could acquire changes that make it easy to spread from human to human, potentially triggering a pandemic in which millions could die and the global economy could be crippled.

The senior U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, David Nabarro, told Reuters he expects health and veterinary officials to draw up a sweeping plan against the disease during three days of talks hosted by the World Health Organisation.

A global programme would mean investing in veterinary services, boosting human disease surveillance, scientific cooperation on vaccine development as well as negotiations with drug companies on access to existing antivirals, he said.

Nabarro also said that as part of the plan, the World Bank would propose setting up a fund to help both countries and agencies respond to the crisis.

"I think there is a reasonably good chance ... that people will congeal around a set of basic principles and elements for what will become an international programme which can then be presented to the donor community over the next couple of months," Nabarro told Reuters in an interview.

"The actual pledging, I understand, will take place in the new year... That is definitely in the plans," he added.

DONATIONS

Jim Adams, the World Bank's chief for operations policy and country services who will make a financial presentation to the talks on Wednesday, has said a trust fund would require initial donations of $300 million (171 million pounds) to $500 million to help countries set up programmes.

Experts say the virus must be stopped in poultry to prevent more people catching it and nowhere is that fight more crucial than in densely populated Asia, where farmers and even city dwellers live side-by-side with poultry and other livestock.

There are also fears that the virus could spread rapidly if it takes hold in Africa's rural hinterlands where similar living conditions exist.

"We've got to be ready for the bird flu epidemic extending into the Middle East and Africa. We just hope that they are stamped out as effectively as they appear to have been in some isolated European outbreaks," Nabarro said.

"This is a global thing. There is no reason to think that the pandemic will start in countries currently affected by avian influenza, although obviously that is where minds are most focussed," he said.

source: Reuters