China was struck by another outbreak of bird flu and a fourth person died from the virus in Indonesia on Tuesday amid warnings that the lethal disease could cost the Asia region up to $290-billion.
At the same time, Vietnam said it has contained its first outbreak this season, detected earlier this month in a flock of 600 ducks in southern Dong Thap province.
In China’s Anhui province, 2 100 geese and chickens were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus that has killed at least 60 people in Asia since late 2003, two-thirds of them in Vietnam.
The outbreak, the sixth in China this year, was detected on October 20 in Liangying village and so far 550 birds have died, according to a ministry of agriculture report to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
Another 44 736 birds have been culled, as China strengthened monitoring around the country, winning praise from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
”They report the outbreaks swiftly and the cooperation is very smooth, especially in information sharing,” FAO China representative Noureddin Mona said.
In Indonesia, a fourth person died from the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the health ministry announced.
”We now have seven cases of bird flu, including four fatalities,” health ministry official Renuizar Rusin said.
Another ministry official, Hariyadi Wibisono, said the casualty was a 23-year-old man who died on September 30 in Bogor, south of Jakarta. Test results received on Monday confirmed he had bird flu.
WHO Indonesia director Georg Petersen said the victim had a history of contact with birds.
”As far as we know, this H5N1 is circulating in birds in Indonesia. As long as that happens, we expect there will be occasional infections in humans. It doesn’t mean the situation has changed,” Petersen said.
Global preparations
Scientists fear the current H5N1 strain may mutate, acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that would make it highly infectious as well as lethal — possibly killing millions worldwide.
Health ministers and experts from 30 countries are meeting in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, to forge a coordinated international effort against the virus, aiming to advance global preparations for a flu pandemic.
Several countries have already announced plans to build stocks of antiviral drugs and vaccines to combat the threat. Governments also have destroyed about 140-million birds wherever the virus has been found.
”All of these measures are good, but they are only the second line of defense,” FAO head Jacques Diouf said. ”The real battleground is on the animal front.”
The Asian Development Bank warned on Tuesday that a severe outbreak of avian influenza could cost the Asia-Pacific region alone between $250-billion and $290-billion.
According to its preliminary estimates, the Manila-based bank believes that even a relatively mild pandemic could cost the region about $90-billion to $110-billion due to the effects of reduced consumption, investment and trade.
The bank said the various stages of a growing human pandemic would have widespread and serious implications for economic development and the welfare of people in the region and beyond, with health systems overwhelmed.
After its emergence in Asia in 2003, the H5N1 strain finally jumped to Europe this month with outbreaks reported in Turkey, Romania and Russia’s south Urals region of Chelyabinsk.
By the end of last week, the virus was confirmed in dead birds in Croatia, Sweden and Britain, where a South American parrot died in quarantine.
Authorities in Britain are exploring a possible Taiwanese link because the parrot, which arrived in the country on September 16, had been exposed to other birds from Taiwan while in mandatory quarantine.
But Taipei has not reported any domestic cases of the disease and it called the comments by the British authorities ”irresponsible”.
Nevertheless, Taiwan on Tuesday staged emergency drills of environmental protection officials and street cleaners on how to handle suspect chickens.
In response to the British case, the European Commission said it will call for a complete ban on wild-bird imports, as it races to erect barriers against the disease. — Sapa-AFP