World Cup News - Germany

[DB]

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/102344.asp

World Cup should be cancelled because of bird flu: German politician

Tuesday ? February 21, 2006

A German Green party politician said the football World Cup, which will be played here from June 9 to July 9, should be cancelled because of the outbreak of bird flu in the country.

"The virus is here, and we have a giant sports event on our hands. I would be tempted to say let us be cautious and call it off," said Baerbel Hoehn, the leader of the parliamentary committee for agriculture.

The World Cup organising committee refused to comment but Hoehn found support from World Health Organisation expert Klaus Stoehr, who said he did not think the suggestion amounted to "scare-mongering."

"We should think very carefully about what we are going to do if we have a human case of avian influenza," he said.

The 2006 World Cup is expected to bring some three million football fans to Germany, and the country has been preparing to host the event since 2000.

The dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu reached German shores last week, and by Tuesday 103 dead birds had tested positive for the disease. ? AFP

[DB]

Re: World Cup should be cancelled because of bird flu

Isn't Bird Flu just in birds?

Why would Germany cancel the World Cup?

Maybe things are worse than we are being told, otherwise there would be no reason to cancel the World Cup.

[ukcz]

Re: World Cup Not Threatened (Phew!)

The original story, that the World Cup would be cancelled in the event of a pandemic, is correct.

Even if the players were willing to play with no on-site audience, there is no chance the authorities would permit the worlds leading players to all infect each other. That would be worse than the bad PR of stopping spectators and may leave them open to multi-million lawsuits. (Yes, even after a pandemic some lawyers will survive!)

[pandemicflu.ca]

Bird Flu threat to World Cup finals -FIFA chief warns

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=161&id=316882006

FIFA chief warns of bird flu threat to World Cup finals
ALLAN HALL
IN BERLIN

THE World Cup might be cancelled because of bird flu, football's top official warned yesterday.

Sepp Blatter, the president of the sport's governing body FIFA, said the tournament could be called off if bird flu starts to be transmitted from human to human.

That would be a devastating blow to World Cup host Germany, which has outbreaks of the virus in five states. Health officials fear the possibility of the virus being passed between humans, especially after it was confirmed on Tuesday that the lethal H5N1 strain has killed a cat in Germany - the first such case in the European Union.

If the virus mutates, the prospect of thousands of fans coughing and breathing over one another in packed football stadiums when the World Cup starts in 99 days would present a health nightmare for Europe. Under this scenario, experts estimate that thousands would die and the health services of Germany and its immediate neighbours would be overwhelmed, forcing major events to be cancelled.

When Britain was hit by foot-and-mouth disease, a series of sporting events was cancelled and the 2001 Six Nations rugby championships were disrupted by travel restrictions.

Mr Blatter said a flu pandemic could lead to the tournament being called off. "At the moment, there's no question of cancelling," he said. "But if it should turn out that bird flu develops into a threat, like cholera or the plague, if it passes on from human to human, it is a decision for the government and we must respect that."

The dead cat was found on the Baltic island of Ruegen, where the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 bird flu was detected in mid-February. Cats and a tiger were first infected with bird flu in Asia in 2004 after the outbreak of the deadly form in 2003. Experts warn that pets may have to be kept indoors to avoid them eating dead birds carrying H5N1 and becoming carriers.

Meanwhile, there are growing signs of falling consumer confidence in poultry as bird flu fears grow. Some 57 per cent of respondents to a Food Standards Agency survey said they were worried about the safety of chicken meat, up 6 per cent on last year.

A warning was also issued yesterday that fears of bird flu arriving in the UK are destroying the hobby of poultry-keeping. Fabian Eagle, based near Swaffham, Norfolk, said poultry prices had dropped by up to a quarter in recent weeks.

"It's dire. The value of stock is just collapsing," he said. "The idea of keeping a few chickens as a hobby has become very fashionable in recent years. But people don't want to do it now. All they want to do is get rid of them."

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Bird Flu threat to World Cup finals -FIFA chief warns

Bird flu spreads to Iran World Cup training camp
LONDON, March 4 (IranMania) - The dangerous bird flu virus has spread to Iran's World Cup training camp site in the south German city of Friedrichshafen, located at the scenic Lake of Constance which is surrounded by Germany, Austria and Switzerland, IRNA reported.
Iran's national football team announced earlier they intended to hold their World Cup preparatory training camp in Friedrichshafen in late May.
The Iranian national football squad is scheduled to stay at the luxurious `Krone Hotel' which is just outside of Friedrichshafen in Schnetzenhausen, IRNA noted.
Meanwhile last week German health officials discovered a dead wild duck with the deadly H5N1/Asia type along the beaches of the lake near the city of Ueberlingen which is some 30 kilometers away from Friedrichshafen.
Dozens of ducks, birds and swans on the lake have in the meantime succumbed to the bird flu as authorities have set up exclusion zones in a three-kilometer radius along the beaches, IRNA stated.

German health experts anticipate a worsening of the bird flu situation in the Lake of Constance region as thousands of migratory birds will fly over the lake to head to western and central Europe from southern Europe and northern Africa.
A senior German politician warned earlier that the 2006 World Cup could be called off, if there is a bird flu pandemic in Germany.
The chairwoman of the agricultural committee of the German Parliament Baerbel Hoehn said she would contemplate such a move, if there are mass cases of human avian influenza detected in Germany over the next few months.
A total of five German states have so far been affected by he bird flu virus, IRNA added.
Hundreds of wild birds have died as a result of the bird flu outbreak which first hit Germany on February 14, mostly on the German Baltic island of Ruegen.
As a consequence of the bird flu detection, Germany has ordered farmers to keep poultry indoors.
Health officials have advised the public not to eat food products which are prepared with raw eggs.
They also warned the public not to touch any dead animals because of the risk of infection to humans.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/Articl...rent%20Affairs