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WHO: Ignorance over bird flu stoking spread

By Jun P. Yap

12/24/2005

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the lack of information provided to the public about the dreaded avian influenza, or bird flu, is abetting the spread of the virus in different countries around the world.

Realizing this, the WHO early this week launched a Web site that contained information all about the feared virus.

The WHO office in Manila said the Web site provides access to updated information obtained from various sources around the world about bird flu.

Citing figures, the organization said Vietnam has had the highest number of reported cases of bird flu infection in humans in the world since the first reported outbreak of the virus occurred in December 2003.

The WHO said in the latest count, 93 of the total 134 reported cases were from Vietnam. The country also owns 42 of the 69 reported deaths from the virus, it added.

The WHO said since mid-December last year alone, 66 cases, which bore 22 deaths, have been reported around the world.

“Lack of information and knowledge about avian influenza are helping to fuel the spread of the virus in Vietnam,” Dr. Hans Troedsson, WHO representative in Vietnam, said.

“The Web site provides an important 24-hour link to information and will help people take measures to control the spread of the virus and protect themselves, their families and communities from this very serious threat,” he added.

The WHO said the Web site at http://www.un.org.vn/who/avian also contains links to other sites that provide more information on bird flu and the present global moves to combat it such as that of the Vietnamese Ministries of Health and Agriculture and Rural Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the WHO (in Geneva and Manila), the World Organization for Animal Health, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, and the Center for Health Protection in Hong Kong.

The WHO in Manila said since December 2003, the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has swept through poultry populations across Asia and parts of Europe. It said the outbreaks are historically unprecedented in scale and geographical spread.

The WHO said it sees the possibility of a bird flu pandemic occurring high, but that it just could not predict when it would happen and how severe it would be. It said a pandemic is sure to break out once the virus mutates into a form that easily spreads among humans.

“The risk of further human cases persists, as do opportunities for a human pandemic strain of the virus to emerge. For these reasons, the current outbreaks of (avian) influenza in poultry and humans in Asia, has moved the world closer to a pandemic than any time since 1968, when the last such event occurred,” it said.