UN agency warns against any early declaration of victory over deadly bird flu

Warning against any early declaration of victory in the battle against the Asian bird flu epidemic that has so far resulted in nearly two dozen human fatalities and the deaths or culling of more than 100 million birds, the United Nations agricultural agency today stressed the need for cooperation to ensure the virus is really under control.

"The crisis is still not over," the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). "In countries such as Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, further outbreaks could still flare up. The virus could spread again within and between countries. As long as the H5N1 virus is not fully under control, the potential threat to human health remains."

The warning came just a day after a forum of 100 experts convened by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva cautioned that the possibility of a deadly human influenza pandemic arising from the current outbreak, which began more than three months ago, remained a serious threat which must be forestalled.

“Collaboration between countries and the international community is essential to ensure that the avian influenza virus really is under control and that effective preventive and control measures have been put in place in each affected country and its neighbours,” the FAO/OIE said.

Noting that the situation had improved in China, Thailand and Viet Nam, it called for appropriate precautionary measures to be put in place to ensure that infected zones become free from infection and remain so. Before countries resume restocking, they must apply strong surveillance and biosecurity measures to ensure that potential new infections are discovered and contained immediately, the two agencies said.

The movement of poultry and contaminated goods must be carefully monitored to avoid the reintroduction of the virus from affected areas and contact between wild and domestic birds has to be minimized.

According to OIE international standards, countries can claim to be free from the virus only six months after the occurrence of the last outbreak. The two organizations also called for further investigation into how the epidemic started, calling this information crucial to avoiding future outbreaks.