EU: Bird Flu Is 'Global Threat'
The European Union on Tuesday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia into the EU a "global threat" requiring international cooperation, but the group's health commissioner says virus' arrival in Europe doesn't increase the risk of a flu pandemic among humans.
EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said officials "hope (a pandemic) will never happen" but adds they "will prepare properly." He said most of the 25 EU governments lack sufficient stocks of anti-viral drugs designed to boost the resistance to the common flu of such risk groups as the elderly, the young, diabetics and others.
Kyprianou said the EU was working on a deal with the pharmaceutical industry whereby EU governments will "increase vaccination for seasonal flu ... and the industry will invest more to build up manufacturing capacity."
"We have not reached the level of (vaccination) preparedness that we should have," Kyprianou told reporters after updating the EU foreign ministers on the westward spreading of bird flu.
But CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports that this bird flu has been around since 1997, and in seven years, just over 100 people have been infected — all in the Far East. Epidemiologists say
, and in almost every case, those who have been sick have either lived in close proximity to their birds or worked in a poultry business."It's still mostly a bird problem, not a people problem," said Pat Thomas of Ecologist Magazine. "There's a big difference between chickens and people and for a virus to make that jump between a chicken and a person — in other words, an egg-laying being and a non-egg-laying being — is a big jump."
The World Health Organization has said although the arrival of the virus in a new location is worrying — because more virus means more opportunities for genetic mutations — it does not mean a human flu pandemic is closer.
In related developments:
The EU was investigating a possible outbreak in Greece of the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed 60 people in Asia. Isolated outbreaks that are swiftly controlled pose a minor threat compared with prolonged outbreaks where birds continue to mix with people, as in Asia.
Kyprianou said the EU health ministers, meeting Thursday and Friday outside London, would discuss national flu preparedness programs and the EU will shortly stage a "command post exercise" to test their preparedness.
The EU foreign ministers underlined the seriousness of bird flu and the threat it poses to animal and public health.
They issued a statement calling "avian and pandemic influenza and called for an international coordinated response."
"This is a global threat," Kyprianou said. "We cannot protect ourselves alone. There is a need for international action and international solidarity with countries in Asia."
The H5N1 bird flu strain has swept poultry populations in large swathes of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing at least 61 people — more than 40 of them in Vietnam — and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.
There is no human vaccine for the current strain of bird flu, but scientists believe the Tamiflu drug may help humans fight bird flu contraction.
Bird flu's westward move is caused by migrating wild fowl.
It has intensified fears in Europe the virus may mutate into one that can be easily transmitted among humans — a development that experts fear could provoke a global epidemic that puts millions of lives at risk.
The EU stepped up biosecurity measures and installed early detection systems along the migratory paths of birds to prevent contamination of domestic flocks.
The EU foreign ministers stressed the need for the EU to coordinate any efforts to stamp out bird flu in consultation with specialized United Nations organizations. Officials stressed the EU does not consider bird flu to be a European problem but that it recognizes there is a threat of a pandemic.
Seeking to calm public fears, the head of the EU's new agency for disease prevention on Monday downplayed the current risk to humans.
"The risk to human health, to public health, at this stage is minimal," said Zsuzsanna Jakab of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
However, she said the Stockholm, Sweden-based agency was drawing up guidelines on how workers who deal with infected animals can protect themselves against infection.
The World Health Organization recommends governments keep stocks of anti-viral drugs and regular human flu vaccines to inoculate at least 25 percent of their populations.
European officials say the 25 nations in the EU, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, have only 10 million doses now for an area of almost 500 million people, and will have only 46 million doses by the end of 2007.
Stockpiling vaccines is difficult as flu viruses can mutate quickly.