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?Surveillance funds needed to prevent flu pandemic?
By Andrew Jack in Singapore
Published: May 4 2006 18:08 | Last updated: May 4 2006 18:08
World flu pandemicGovernments need to invest substantial sums to bring infectious disease surveillance systems out of ?the Dark Ages? if they want a chance of preventing, or limiting, the effects of a future influenza pandemic, a top scientist warned on Thursday.
Roy Anderson, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College, London, and chief scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Defence, called for the creation of ?an international digital web-transmitted system? in real time to alert specialists of flu cases as they occur around the world.
Speaking in a personal capacity at the Lancet?s pandemic influenza conference in Singapore, he said early detection and analysis of the virus would be vital in efforts to prevent a local epidemic becoming a pandemic, using a containment strategy of antiviral drugs and quarantining that would in any case, prove ?bloody tough?.
In the event of a pandemic, he stressed it would take a fortnight after initial human infections for scientists to understand the virus? ?attack rate? and characteristics, and rapid dissemination of this information would be crucial to preparing an effective response just as it spread to other countries.
The current H5N1 virus has killed just over 100 people and not mutated into a form easily transmitted between humans but its lethal nature and widespread presence in birds worries many experts that it could trigger a pandemic.
Robert Webster from St Jude Children?s Research Hospital in Memphis, one of the world?s leading flu experts, also called for strengthened surveillance and better data, including more autopsies of victims of the virus to understand the biology.
Samples from the corpses of less than half a dozen who have died from H5N1 have been conducted to date, partly because of cultural sensitivities. ?This has got to change,? he said.
Summarising the conference, which brought together more than 400 scientists, public health specialists and officials, he called for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to force ministries of agriculture and health to co-operate more closely to reduce the risks of infection in animals and humans alike.
He called for studies on combination drug therapies, the wider use of better quality animal vaccines and stockpiling of human vaccines based on current H5N1 strains.
Frederick Hayden from the University of Virginia, who has been seconded to the WHO?s global influenza programme, said he hoped trials co-ordinated by the US National Institutes of Health would begin this autumn among 400 patients in H5N1-affected countries to assess the most appropriate dosing of Tamiflu, the leading antiviral drug. New WHO treatment recommendations are expected shortly.
David Reddy from Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical group that manufactures Tamiflu, said there had been a big expansion in capacity, pandemic stockpile orders from 65 governments and 3.2m doses donated by the company. But he said the real challenge would be delivering the drug to rural areas likely to be affected.
By Andrew Jack in Singapore
Published: May 4 2006 18:08 | Last updated: May 4 2006 18:08
World flu pandemicGovernments need to invest substantial sums to bring infectious disease surveillance systems out of ?the Dark Ages? if they want a chance of preventing, or limiting, the effects of a future influenza pandemic, a top scientist warned on Thursday.
Roy Anderson, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College, London, and chief scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Defence, called for the creation of ?an international digital web-transmitted system? in real time to alert specialists of flu cases as they occur around the world.
Speaking in a personal capacity at the Lancet?s pandemic influenza conference in Singapore, he said early detection and analysis of the virus would be vital in efforts to prevent a local epidemic becoming a pandemic, using a containment strategy of antiviral drugs and quarantining that would in any case, prove ?bloody tough?.
In the event of a pandemic, he stressed it would take a fortnight after initial human infections for scientists to understand the virus? ?attack rate? and characteristics, and rapid dissemination of this information would be crucial to preparing an effective response just as it spread to other countries.
The current H5N1 virus has killed just over 100 people and not mutated into a form easily transmitted between humans but its lethal nature and widespread presence in birds worries many experts that it could trigger a pandemic.
Robert Webster from St Jude Children?s Research Hospital in Memphis, one of the world?s leading flu experts, also called for strengthened surveillance and better data, including more autopsies of victims of the virus to understand the biology.
Samples from the corpses of less than half a dozen who have died from H5N1 have been conducted to date, partly because of cultural sensitivities. ?This has got to change,? he said.
Summarising the conference, which brought together more than 400 scientists, public health specialists and officials, he called for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to force ministries of agriculture and health to co-operate more closely to reduce the risks of infection in animals and humans alike.
He called for studies on combination drug therapies, the wider use of better quality animal vaccines and stockpiling of human vaccines based on current H5N1 strains.
Frederick Hayden from the University of Virginia, who has been seconded to the WHO?s global influenza programme, said he hoped trials co-ordinated by the US National Institutes of Health would begin this autumn among 400 patients in H5N1-affected countries to assess the most appropriate dosing of Tamiflu, the leading antiviral drug. New WHO treatment recommendations are expected shortly.
David Reddy from Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical group that manufactures Tamiflu, said there had been a big expansion in capacity, pandemic stockpile orders from 65 governments and 3.2m doses donated by the company. But he said the real challenge would be delivering the drug to rural areas likely to be affected.
