Source: CCTV.com

04-03-2007 16:17

The alarms over bird flu have repeatedly been going off since the beginning of the New Year. Four Indonesians died in the first two weeks of 2007, Vietnam witnessed outbreaks spreading to eight provinces, Thailand set up a ‘war room’ for a 24-hour operation of monitoring and surveying the spread of the virus, and South Korea even sent out troops for quarantine and culling tasks. Meanwhile, China confirmed a human H5N1case in the eastern province of Anhui. Hong Kong called for a ban on releasing birds in Buddhist rituals after dead birds in its territory tested positive for H5N1, and Japan says bird flu is back after 13 months.

It seems that the sparks of the bird flu are now becoming a prairie fire. “This H5N1 virus is causing unprecedented damage to the poultry sector, and along the way many people were infected, and more than half of these people died,” warns the director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Margaret Chan. “We must not let our guard down. We must maintain our vigilance.”

The WHO website (www.who.int) carries weekly updated figures on human cases of bird flu. With a bit of analysis, these numbers suggest that the H5N1 virus is found more in developing countries, especially South-east Asia.

Animal outbreaks and human cases have occurred in more than 50 countries worldwide. Among the 267 human cases reported till Jan. 15, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam account for 82 percent of these, while Indonesia and Vietnam have reported two-thirds of the deaths. In contrast, developed countries in Europe and North America are absent from the WHO table of statistics, which couls suggest some linkage between bird flu and economic status. If we consider bird flu a development issue, a lot of evidence could be found in prevention and control practices.