(1888PressRelease)
August 30, 2007 - A special report published today warns that complacency threatens pandemic preparedness planning. Although avian flu and reports of a pandemic has dropped off the news page, the threat is still very real, said the Homeland Defense Journal (HDJ).
Since 2003 there have been 322 confirmed human cases of avian influenza reported to the World Health Organization and of these, 195 died – a fatality rate of over 60 percent.
In the same period, there have been hundreds of confirmed cases in poultry and wild birds in 55 countries and more than 250 million birds have died or been slaughtered. The disease has steadily spread from the Far East to Africa and the Middle East and Europe.
In September last year, U.S. authorities detected the H5N1 virus in wild ducks in Pennsylvania and Maryland and in January 2007, an avian flu outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in the UK led to the slaughter of 160,000 birds.
Now, American researchers say the deadly H5N1 form of bird flu has split into two distinct strains, a development that could make it harder to develop vaccines to stop the spread of the disease, according to the HDJ Special Report.
“Although avian influenza and the threat of a pandemic may have dropped off the news pages, health experts worldwide warn that it is no time to be complacent. WHO and U.S. health experts continue to stress that it is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ a pandemic strikes,” said the report.
This concern was reinforced on August 23 at the North American Leaders Summit when President Bush, the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada, announced the North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza.
“The stakes are high, and our greatest enemy is complacency,” warned President George Bush.
The virus is now endemic in parts of Southeast Asia, is present in long-range migratory birds, and is unlikely to be eradicated in the short term. A worldwide outbreak of a new influenza virus could result in a high death toll, millions of hospitalizations, and hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs to North American economies.
According to the WHO, infectious diseases are also emerging more quickly around the globe, spreading faster and becoming increasingly difficult to treat. The United Nations agency warned there was a good possibility that another major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing millions would appear in the coming years.
Since the 1970s new threats have been identified at an "unprecedented rate" of one or more every year, meaning that nearly 40 diseases exist today which were unknown just over a generation ago.
Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not yet mutated into a form that passes easily between humans, as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic was "likely to be of an avian variety" and could affect some 1.5 billion people.
"The question of a pandemic of influenza from this virus or another avian influenza virus is still a matter of when, not if," the WHO said.
With this in mind, medical and public health leaders will meet in Arlington, VA, on November 13 and 14 at the 2007 Preparing for Pandemic Influenza Conference. The conference will address three crucial that are an essential part of the nation’s National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza:
• How real is the Pandemic threat today, and how should you prepare to respond at the federal, state, and local levels?
• How an influenza pandemic can impact your community or business, and what measures should you be taking to ensure business continuity?
• While a pandemic response is primarily a public health response, what is the best approach to properly communicate an outbreak to staff, community, other agencies, organizations, and private institutions – and most importantly – to ensure families are prepared - in a coordinated and collaborative manner to ensure an effective overall response to such a crisis.
