Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 21 2006 (IPS) – This winter, Vietnam is well prepared for the bird flu virus which is believed to spread faster under cooler weather conditions.
A year ago we were talking about Vietnam in quite concerned language as there were many reported outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry and we were also seeing a lot of sporadic cases among humans, says Dr. David Nabarro, senior U.N. system coordinator for avian and human influenza.
But, as a result of intense action by the government , Vietnam has contained the deadly H5N1 virus in the bird population and seen real drastic reduction in human cases , Nabarro said during a press conference in the Thai capital on Friday.
That success is attributed to Hanoi involving community volunteers in a vaccination programme for birds and effective culling at reported infection sites.
The numbers reflect this achievement in a country that was described as the worst affected ahead of the 2005 winter. Then, Vietnam had recorded 42 human deaths due to bird flu since the winter of 2003, the highest number in any bird flu-hit country. But since that low point, it has not recorded a single human death from bird flu.
Similar success was achieved within the poultry population during the seven-month period after December. That record was shaken in August, say officials from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), following a small outbreak that month.
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Vietnam has started another round of vaccinating its poultry and that has played an important part in their preparedness for the next outbreak, Laurence Gleeson, regional manager of the emergency centre for transboundary animal diseases at the FAO s Asia-Pacific office, told IPS. Money from donors is being invested to strengthen surveillance programmes and for their ability to carry out lab diagnosis.
At the same time, it has also forced the closure of many wet markets, a regular sight in cities, towns and villages where live chickens are openly slaughtered with little concern for health consequences. The ubiquitous markets were identified as the breeding grounds of avian influenza.
The country s health system, too, has been strengthened to deal with a possible pandemic that may arise if the H5N1 virus mutates to one easily passed among humans. We looked at their operational plans, their hospital preparedness and they have a lot of depth, adds Dr. Maureen Birmingham, head of the communicable disease surveillance and response division of the World Health Organisation s (WHO) South-east Asia office.
Among measures, she explained in an interview, were those worked out to strengthen vigilance . It is going on there with a lot of care .
Yet, such achievement in combating the next bird flu winter in Vietnam and Thailand another success story is not easing minds in this region, given the new epicentre of the virus that has emerged in 2006 Indonesia. This week, the archipelago witnessed its 55th human fatality from bird flu. The victim was a 27-year-old woman from Central Java. Forty three of those deaths in Indonesia, the world s worst affected country, occurred this year.
We are presently concerned about the situation in Indonesia because out of 33 provinces, the majority of the provinces have avian influenza problems, Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO s deputy regional representative for the Asia-Pacific region, said at the press conference. Avian influenza is still poorly understood in some local areas.
To turn around the situation Nabarro used his current tour through three bird flu-hit South-east Asian countries Burma, Cambodia and Thailand to push through a prevention plan that includes greater community participation.
None of this work can be taken forward without communities understanding the threat posed by avian influenza and understanding the health risks they face, he said. We have been working with governments as they mobilise communities to get them prepared for avian influenza outbreaks and also for a possible pandemic.
Bird flu has killed over 140 people since its current outbreak began in the winter of 2003. South-east Asia has been hit the hardest among the regions, including Europe, Africa, South and Central Asia, that have also had to combat the spread of the virus. Besides Indonesia and Vietnam, Thailand has had 17 human fatalities and Cambodia has had six. In addition, the virus has penetrated poultry populations in Burma, Malaysia and Laos.
When the current outbreak began, animal health specialists were taken by surprise, says the FAO. Consequently, it took time to control the spread the H5N1 virus during the 2003-2004 period. Losses from death or culling were the highest in Vietnam some 44 million birds, accounting for 17.5 percent of the poultry population. In Thailand, some 29 million birds, or 14.5 percent of the poultry population were lost, adds the food agency.
Vietnam opted for the poultry vaccination route to avoid a repeat of poultry deaths during the subsequent period. In 2005, Hanoi made the decision to vaccinate all of the country s 220 million chickens, says the FAO.
Bird flu has been detected in over 50 countries across the world and culling has been effective in containing the virus spread. In South-east Asia alone, some 200 million poultry have been culled, causing losses worth nearly 10 billion US dollars, notes the FAO.