A number of southeast Asian agriculture ministers have agreed to launch a three-year plan next year aimed at stamping out the menace of bird flu in the region - a move they hope will win enough international aid to halt the disease before it becomes a catastrophic global epidemic with the potential to kill millions.
The ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said in a statement yesterday that "the highly pathogenic avian influenza," which has ravaged poultry populations in large swaths of Asia and killed dozens of people, requires "an all-out co-ordinated regional effort."
At the close of the meeting in the resort town of Tagaytay just south of Manila, the ASEAN ministers issued a joint statement endorsing the regional plan and directing a new task force to urgently formulate "a detailed action plan for implementation and proceed to identify potential sources of funding."
The three-year plan includes provisions for a disease surveillance and alert system, vaccinations, improving diagnostic capability and the establishment of disease-free zones.
The ASEAN animal health trust fund formally established during the meeting "gives the signal to potential donors that ASEAN member countries are serious about eradicating the avian flu as well as other diseases that are facing the region," said ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Wilfrido Villacorta.
"It's important that we have the political commitment of the region so we can effectively invite the donors to back the program," said Subhash Mozaria, chief technical adviser of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, in a presentation on Thursday before ASEAN agriculture ministers.
The two-day ministerial meeting came on the heels of an urgent warning by Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organisation, who said on Thursday that political leaders must take immediate steps to prevent a human flu pandemic, which could strike if the bird virus mutates into a strain that is both deadly to humans and easily spread among people.
Between 5 million and 150 million people could die in a human flu pandemic - the higher figure being likely if governments fail to act now, Nabarro said. But yesterday the UN health agency said that while it was impossible to estimate the human toll from such a pandemic, it has warned countries to prepare for up to 7.4 million deaths
Bird flu has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, killing at least 65 people, most in Vietnam and Thailand. Massive culling of birds has failed to stop the disease from spreading, and regional officials have long complained of a lack of money for testing and vaccinating poultry and for stockpiling medicine.
The WHO, FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE, hope to convince Western nations to commit at least 250 million dollars to help bird flu affected nations over the next three years, WHO Western Pacific regional director Shigeru Omi told reporters in July.
ASEAN comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
PA