INTERVIEW-Europe may face repeat of winter's bird flu
Source: Reuters
By David Evans PARIS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - A flare up of bird flu in Asia and a suspected case in Hungary highlights a failure to tackle the virus at source and may herald a repeat of the disease's sweep across Europe last winter, a health expert said on Tuesday. The start of 2007 has brought fresh outbreaks of bird flu across Asia. Five people have died of the H5N1 virus in Indonesia since Jan. 1, while new cases in poultry have been reported in Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. "In some parts of the world, we have not done what should have been done, and that's to fight the disease in birds," Alex Thiermann, head of the standard-setting committee at the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE), told Reuters. "The disease reporting and the rapidity of detection is better, but something we're not doing is to break the cycle from wildlife to domestic birds," he said in a telephone interview. While H5N1 is essentially a poultry disease, it can be carried by wildfowl and can be fatal to humans if they come into prolonged close contact with diseased birds. In many countries like Indonesia, millions of backyard fowl live in close proximity to humans and health education campaigns often have been patchy and rules difficult to enforce. "We're failing to address the problem at its most effective and earliest step," Thiermann said. "We are not doing the right thing with poultry." H5N1 is known to have infected 269 people worldwide since late 2003 and of these, 163 have died. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is passed easily between humans and spark a global flu pandemic, killing millions of people. Thiermann said that so far the virus had remained remarkably stable, given the usual unpredictability of influenza viruses. "I fear us becoming too complacent. The virus has not significantly changed in its behaviour, but how much longer can that last?," he asked. VIRUS ON THE MOVE? In what could be the European Union's first case of the disease this winter, Hungary said on Tuesday it would cull 3,300 geese at a farm where birds died of suspected avian influenza. The results of further tests are due within days but officials said migratory birds may be to blame. Thiermann said that while more information on what exactly was the cause of the suspected bird flu in Hungary, it was a worrying sign and could mean the virus was on the move again. "If it is beginning to show up again, is it the beginning of the cycle all the way from the north to the south again? Or is it flaring up from pockets that were already there?" he said. "I suggest the former and if it's moving as it did last year, we know at least in part it's going to be related to migratory waterfowl," he said. "And if the story is repeating itself, it's because we didn't do the right thing where we should have done." However, he said governments had learnt a lot from last winter's cases and generally Europe was well prepared to handle further outbreaks, although there are weak spots, particularly in central and eastern Europe. "If the virus were to come back to Europe, we should not see a worse picture than we saw last year, I would be very surprised if it goes beyond one or two establishments," he said. "The problem is what happens if it comes back to Turkey or Africa. If we get a new wave there, the picture could be as bad or even worse, he added. "We need to emphasise to countries the importance of immediate reporting. We may need to mobilise forces to help countries that have not even detected it yet," he said. "And the next couple of weeks will be interesting -- will we begin to see the 2006 picture all over again?"
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