Avian Flu

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Ireland wishes to congratualte the Republic of Sierra Leone for its efforts in helping to prevent the spread of this disease.

Reply 41

Dhesi

The Netherlands would also like to extend congratulations to The Republic of Sierra Leone for its efforts.

Reply 42

Knogle

Singapore would like to highlight the efforts of Indonesia, which has been hit harded by the disease, and recently reported her 19th confirmed death as a result of the avian influenza. We continue to support Jakarta in her fight against the virus, and are prepared to assist the government should they require foreign intervention.

Reply 43

aiman

Germany is grieved at observing that the disease has spread to India, France, Egypt and Iran. It believes that this could be the beginnings of a pandemic. It encourages France, Egypt, India and Iran to increase biosecurity measures to prevent spreading.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4728632.stm ]

Reply 44

aiman

Germany encourages countries with cases of H5N1 to follow France's commendable example:

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4723688.stm ]

Reply 45

simeon125

South Korea is distressed by the ever quickening cases of bird flu. However there may be a cure. South Korea's spicy fermented cabbage dish, kimchi, could help to cure bird flu, according to researchers. In fact, Scientists at Seoul National University have said that they fed an extract of kimchi to 13 infected chickens - and a week later 11 of them had started recovering.

Check the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4347443.stm

Reply 46

aiman

Germany is worried due to the report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FOA) showing that the H5N1 virus has spread to many improvished countries in West Africa.

[http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0602/S00306.htm ]

Reply 47

fr browne

So France want to innoculate birds now :hmmm:

do they know that it woudl probably be easier to do it to humans seens as there are pobably less humans than birds currently residing in the EU.

Reply 48

brimstone

Many countries, including Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mauritania have prepared bird flu contingency plans.

The Republic of Sierra Leone thanks the FOA for recognising their efforts.

Reply 49

turbochargedk

Switzerland considers that for now keeping poultry indoors is an ample precaution but doesn't rule out further precautions. Switzerland is a little concerned upon the discovery of it's first case of bird flu in a duck on Lake Geneva.

Reply 50

brimstone

The Republic of Sierra Leone congratulates Switzerland for her efforts.

Reply 51

Nightowl

China would like to confirm that today a 32 year old man died of Bird Flu in our GuanDong Province.

Reply 52

Knogle

Singapore has recently just briefed parliament on measures taken against avian flu outbreaks. We are highlighting our strategy here for the benefit of the international community:

AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore) actively engages its ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) counterparts in efforts to combat the disease. The ASEAN HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) Taskforce was set up to facilitate a coordinated regional approach for HPAI control. To garner international support and maintain urgency, we will continue to keep HPAI on the agenda of international fora. AVA is also helping to train Indonesian officers in lab diagnosis and surveillance skills.

At our borders, we are maintaining a high state of alert. AVA conducts 100% inspections on poultry imports, and works with ICA and Police to guard against smuggling of birds. All ornamental bird imports are tested before release from checkpoints.

AVA requires our local poultry farms to maintain high levels of bio-security, and regularly inspects our poultry farms and slaughterhouses. We have banned poultry rearing on Pulau Ubin to remove the risk posed by backyard farming. Households on mainland are not allowed to keep more than 10 caged chicken. AVA also conducts surveillance on wild birds at Sungei Buloh and P. Ubin, as well as on urban pest birds. As further protection, we have vaccinated birds at the Birdpark and Zoo.

To further protect against HPAI outbreaks in Singapore, AVA will be implementing 2 additional safeguards. Firstly, AVA will implement bio-segregation to minimize inter-farm contact to prevent any potential spread of virus should there be an outbreak. Bio-segregation measures include requiring farms not to share equipment, and separating egg collection from production areas.

Our local poultry farms can be grouped into 5 clusters. With effective bio-segregation, should there be an isolated outbreak within a cluster, poultry in other clusters need not be culled, thus enhancing the resilience of our local egg supply.

AVA will also implement emergency vaccination of poultry in local farms, when there is an imminent risk of HPAI incursion into Singapore. Emergency vaccination will only be activated under severe circumstances, for example, if there are rampant outbreaks in nearby areas.

Complementing existing measures, these additional measures would reduce the risk of HPAI incursion, and contain the spread of the virus should there be an outbreak.

In order to prevent drastic disruptions to our fresh food supply, AVA will continue to diversify our food supply sources, and keep food trade going for as long as possible. But, this is an effort requiring more than Government action. We also need the cooperation of the private and people sectors. Businesses in the food industry must have their continuity plans in place. AVA will regularly review the situation with the industry, including exploring with importers on the feasibility of stepping up inventories of frozen food. The public too has a vital part to play. Households must adjust their food preferences and purchasing patterns. This will give AVA and the industry the needed time and scope to bring in imports from alternative sources.

In conclusion, AVA will leave no stone unturned in the effort to safeguard Singapore against bird flu. It has put in the necessary resources, and will continue to be vigilant.

Reply 53

Nightowl

China would like to give these figures from the WHO website:

A total of 174 human cases of bird flu involving 94 deaths havebeen reported to the WHO as of March 1, according to the WHO's website.

Reply 54

Wootcannon

Britain points out some things:

1. It is highly unlikely that HN51 will mutate into the form that transmits between and kills humans extremely rapidly.

2. At the moment/ even if it mutates (couldn't read the type properly) the chances of catching it are 1:100,000,000. Britain has a population of 62,000,000.

3. 94 deaths is absolutely nothing. There are 7,000,000,000 people on the planet. 94/ 7,000,000,000= 1.3428571 * 10-8, or 1 and a third to the power of -8. That is, out of a global population, 0.000000013428571 dead from bird flu. Let's keep some perspective here, shall we.

Britain also wishes to state that the above were in no way meant to be insulting to China, who presented them as facts and nothing more, it's just to prevent people going in hysterics and taking far too much action.

Reply 55

Nightowl

Could Britain please point to scientific evidence which suggests it is unlikely to mutate.

While China appreciates Britain has only 62,000,000 people, China has over
1 billion people. Therefore the statistics become more significant for us anyway.

3. 94 deaths is absolutely nothing. There are 7,000,000,000 people on the planet. 94/ 7,000,000,000= 1.3428571 * 10-8, or 1 and a third to the power of -8. That is, out of a global population, 0.000000013428571 dead from bird flu. Let's keep some perspective here, shall we.

Absolutely. 94 deaths out of 174 cases, so far. 94/174x100= 54%.

From the statistics we have so far, in humans the mortality rate is 54%, I.E. Over half.

Pointing out that this is a miniscule percentage of the World Population is rediculous. Of course its small, at the moment its only affecting people who are in DIRECT contact with birds, I don't think were expecting everyone in the world to be in such close contact. The World is preparing for when it mutates, which despite what you said it will eventually. it's a flu virus, they are well known for mutating continually and rapidly.

China is shocked Britain considers 94 deaths "nothing" given the circumstances and urges Britain to rethink before its too late. OF course we don't want to incite fear into people and mass panic, but we want people to be aware of the gravity of the situation.

This isn't the first time something like bird flu has come about, the Spanish Flu pandemic (which, scientists have said, started as a bird flu which learnt to transmit between humans) in 1918 killed fifty million people. Why is Britain so admant it's not going to happen again soon?

China is shocked to discover Britain criticising other countries for taking "too much action", considering Britain has already promised to it's citizens that they will all be vaccinated.

Does Britain not agree its better to be overprepared than underprepared?