"Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

[St Michael]

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=21346&sid=8535869&con_type=1

Empty promises fill bird-flu war chest

The main obstacles in the world battle against bird flu are empty promises, according to a health expert.

Chester Yung

Friday, June 23, 2006

The main obstacles in the world battle against bird flu are empty promises, according to a health expert.
Sanjay Sinho, the health unit director of the nongovernment organization CARE, said Thursday donor countries at a January World Bank conference on bird flu in Beijing pledged US$1.9 billion (HK$14.82 billion) to combat bird flu around the world but only US$300 million has been received so far.

"Pledging is one thing. The physical provision of money is another," he said. "It is hard enough to contain an outbreak of disease when it is reported immediately and where there are good systems in place."

Many developing countries have little or no human and animal health systems to deal with a possible pandemic such as bird flu, he added.

"Much of the money pledged for combating bird flu needs to go toward issues like compensation for destroyed birds and alternative livelihoods as well as to strengthening health systems."

However, the empty promises have undermined these efforts, especially the surveillance systems at the community level.

"Unfortunately, it is a very common problem and happens in many places," he said. "It will put more pressure on the national level [to combat bird flu]" and the disease could spread faster.

Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok earlier warned poor countries could not afford timely bird-flu tests, and that this could delay raising an outbreak alert.

In a commentary entitled "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu," Stanford University Hoover Institution fellow Henry Miller suggested rich countries should plough more resources into developing nations primarily for surveillance as this is "a politically incorrect but rational strategy"

Miller said: "They will not only obtain timely warning of an H5N1 strain that is transmissible from human to human, but will also get to focus the vast majority of their funding on parallel, low- and high-tech approaches, vaccines, drugs and other public health measures that will primarily benefit themselves."

In a report released by brokerage firm CLSA last November, researchers said corrupt or inept mainland officials and other bureaucratic problems may thwart the government's efforts to control the spread of the H5N1 virus in China, described as the "epicenter" of the problem.

The report quoted Caijing, a leading mainland journal, as saying local officials are still wary of reporting bad news to the central government, adding that inadequate compensation for culled poultry stocks reduces farmers' incentive to report outbreaks.

Meanwhile, Sinho feared Indonesia is a likely place where a human bird flu pandemic may originate.

He said the recent human clusters found in North Sumatra, where seven members of a family died from bird flu, showed the virus could have jumped from human to human.

In 2003, H5N1 re-emerged in humans, causing more than 120 deaths worldwide - with a mortality rate of more than 50 percent - although there is no convincing evidence yet of human-to-human transmission.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that is easily transmissible among humans, triggering a pandemic.

[NY1]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...869&con_type=1

Empty promises fill bird-flu war chest

[B] pledged US$1.9 billion (HK$14.82 billion) to combat bird flu around the world but only US$300 million has been received so far.[B]

What else is new!! The Fed didn't want to spend 40 million to fix the levee around NL before Katrina hit. The damage is 1000 times bigger.

[sharon sanders]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

It is not really productive to discuss the various policy successes/failures of the United States government. Everyone will have a different opinion and then the conversation will become political and we will become embroiled in a never ending controversy.

I am asking all members to refrain from making such statements due to the inability to come to any fruitful conclusions.

Thank you.


S.

[NY1]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

How about the failure to install tsunami detection system in the Indian ocean which could save 200K lives? Is that political?

[Dark Horse]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...869&con_type=1

Empty promises fill bird-flu war chest

The main obstacles in the world battle against bird flu are empty promises, according to a health expert.

Chester Yung

Friday, June 23, 2006

The main obstacles in the world battle against bird flu are empty promises, according to a health expert.
Sanjay Sinho, the health unit director of the nongovernment organization CARE, said Thursday donor countries at a January World Bank conference on bird flu in Beijing pledged US$1.9 billion (HK$14.82 billion) to combat bird flu around the world but only US$300 million has been received so far.

"Pledging is one thing. The physical provision of money is another," he said. "It is hard enough to contain an outbreak of disease when it is reported immediately and where there are good systems in place."

I think such statements made by the world community are not "empty." Rather, there are some very real logistical issues in sending money into third world areas without having some real assurances that it will be used properly, won't end up in the country's officials' Swiss bank accounts, will not be used by terrorist groups, will not be spent on supplies and services that will never get into the right hands, will not be spent on the wrong supplies and services, etc. etc.

Western countries should be allowed to have their own people in the countries to which they provide large sums of money for very specific purposes and to have the ability to audit what happens to those funds. It would be irresponsible folly to send some of these countries a large check. The documentation for this type of folly is rich in history. To this point, Indonesia has made a BIG issue of telling various countries providing aid to tsunami and earthquake victims to get out in a few weeks after delivering aid. Also, Indonesia, who just released a very controversial cleric thought to be heavily involved in the Bali massacre, wanted a militant Islamic group to distribute all of the earthquake aid.

Until some of the behavior of third world officials which very much offends donor sensibilities changes, you will find responsible western countries very conservative in dispersing pledged funds.

Yes, it is critical that places like Indonesia get bird flu under control, but sending money will not accomplish that goal. Today, the health minister refused to publish the results of the WHO study of the clusters and their recommendation. Instead she insists that there is no evidence of H2H. Does anyone reasonably think that if western countries gave Indonesia say $100 million to compensate farmers for culled animals that the money would ever be used for that purpose? what happened to the Tamiflu that Australia sent to Indonesia?

I don't mean to beat up on Indonesia alone, many countries in Africa fit into the same category.

This pandemic has been brought to you courtesy of third world poverty, lack of education, and government corruption.

[sharon sanders]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

NY1 -I have asked you nicely to refrain from incendiary statements. Your last comment has nothing to do with the subject matter here.

I am not asking again.

[prepdeb]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

I agree that it's foolish to just toss money to countries where there has been evidence that the funds are seldom used for the purpose they're given for.

It would be a great idea to provide the experts to oversee the use of the funds.

But ... I was horrified to learn recently in the news that we (US) don't even have a plan in place to monitor and collect test results from poultry farms. It's pretty frightening that after all of the money we've spent on pandemic planning as a nation, we are content to let the industry test voluntarily and report if they feel it's necessary.

I'm no scientist, doctor or politician, but it sounds just plain stupid to me.
With all the concern about third world nations not handling the threat, I assumed that we had sensible procedures in place.

[Sonny]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

prepdeb, I thought the USDA and each State had been involved in poultry inspections and disease surveillance for years and years?

But ... I was horrified to learn recently in the news that we (US) don't even have a plan in place to monitor and collect test results from poultry farms. It's pretty frightening that after all of the money we've spent on pandemic planning as a nation, we are content to let the industry test voluntarily and report if they feel it's necessary..

Veterinary surveillance

In the United States, surveillance for avian influenza is conducted by states, the poultry industry, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) (Appendix 4). Diagnostic testing is performed by state and industry laboratories, with confirmatory testing by USDA/APHIS Veterinary Services at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.

CDC and state health departments will continue to assist USDA and state veterinary diagnostic laboratories, as requested, in monitoring influenza strains among poultry and swine. Recent instances of human infection with avian influenza viruses are described in Supplement 2, Box 2.

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

I read recently that Tyson is testing heavily.

What is to be gained by NOT testing - killing an enormous industry?

I think not.

.

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

Dark Horse has some very important points.

The money is often distributed differently than we would expect. We would call it corruption (& I'm sure some is that), however in Indonesia some "redistribution of funds" is how things are accomplished. It's a cross between a gratuity, merit pay, & "greasing the skids", which unfortunately sometimes gets abused and excessive.

When you have people who are grossly underpaid, a reasonable gratuity will ensure better service. Sometimes doing ordinary business is so incredibly cumbersome, that "greasing the skids" with a person of influence is mandatory if you want to accomplish your business. Some of this should be viewed as a form of "merit pay", which has become entrenched into a culture. Even NGOs and American corporations sometimes "play the game" or risk being totally ineffective.

For example, there is not insurance for mailed packages. However, a small gratuity to the mailman increases the odds of a successfull package arrival. Is your ship having trouble getting timely treatment in a port? A deposit in someone's foreign account will guarantee you don't loose all your profits.

My sister learned to live with the system because it's the way things work. But greed is alive and well there, just as surely as we give our corporate executives absurdly high compensation packages for "results," or pay lobbyists to "grease the skids" for a business, or make generous corporate donations to political campaigns.

.

[prepdeb]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

Sonny - I had always assumed that the US probably had stringent processes in place too. Perhaps the article(s) I mentioned were pure sensationalism and not reflective of what really goes on.

Here is one of the articles that critcizes the plan. There were quite a few out there a few days ago.

Report: USDA lacks plan for bird flu testing
Current screening methods unable to accurately monitor virus' spread
The Associated Press


Updated: 6:40 p.m. CT June 20, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration lacks a comprehensive plan for testing and monitoring bird flu in commercial poultry, a federal audit says.

The industry is testing every flock for bird flu, but the tests are voluntary and there is no method for reporting findings to the federal government, the Agriculture Department?s inspector general said Tuesday.

As a result, the department does not know the extent of surveillance being done in each state and is not gathering consistent data that would indicate whether the deadly Asian strain of bird flu is present, and if so, how widespread it is, according to the audit.

In response to the criticism, the department said it was developing a strategy for assembling such a plan, promising to design a national bird flu testing system by Oct. 31.

The inspector general?s recommendations ?have only furthered our plans to prepare and respond to any avian influenza outbreak,? said department spokeswoman Karen Eggert.

Department officials told the inspector general they only recently got the funding necessary for such a plan. The inspector general agreed with department plans for fixing the problems identified in the report, Eggert noted.

USDA relying too heavily on states?
Critics worry that the department is relying too heavily on states for surveillance. The report noted there are disparities in how states do the testing.

?The federal government continues to push the responsibility of finding and responding to a possible outbreak of avian influenza on states,? said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Senate Agriculture Committee?s senior Democrat.

?As a result, USDA does not have a comprehensive national plan for surveillance and monitoring of poultry flocks and states lack adequate federal resources to respond to potential avian influenza outbreaks,? Harkin said.

Bird flu is commonly found in U.S. poultry, but the deadly Asian strain that has killed at least 128 people has not been found in this country. So far, most human cases have been linked to infected birds, but scientists fear the virus will mutate into a highly contagious form that spreads easily among people.

The inspector general identified disparities in how states tests for bird flu; for example, one state fully tests chickens, turkeys and eggs, while another tests only flocks covered by a federal-state-industry program for controlling diseases.


The disparities worry foreign trading partners, the report said. Other countries don?t understand why the U.S. can?t provide the number of tests by state, advise whether all types of commercial poultry are tested or say whether backyard flocks are being tested, the report said.

The U.S. is the world?s biggest producer and exporter of poultry meat.

The department created a committee to put together a comprehensive surveillance and monitoring plan, but the committee did not have a leader for most of 2005, the report said. A newly hired staff veterinarian has now been assigned to chair the committee.

The report also raised concerns with how the Agriculture Department tracks potential instances of bird flu. Employees didn?t complete investigations within a week, as the department requires. The inspector general found 46 unresolved investigations of potential bird flu, 43 of which were not completed for more than six months.

The department closed the cases after investigators asked about them, saying the work had been finished but not recorded.

Officials still don?t know how much poultry in the U.S. already is being tested or monitored, the report said.

And while testing has been done by states and live bird markets, the findings haven?t been analyzed to draw conclusions about flu in U.S. bird populations or detect changes in types of flu or how widespread it is, the report said.

?Thus, it is difficult or impossible to reach valid conclusions based on the data,? the report said.

? 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13444205/

[Sonny]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

Whoa I didn't know that. I guess I should have suspected such as much since USDA allows untested downer cows to be feed to chickens and then the chicken manure to be feed to cows. You ever get the feeling that somehow we're in the wrong reality?

[Mellie]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

With the looming probability of pandemic, ya think maybe the earth system is trying to tell us this kind of "production" is out of balance?

The message may also simply relate to the fact that when carrying capacity of the earth is exceeded, there will be some dieoff to bring the numbers down.

In basic ecology class there was always the example of the exponential growth curve of rabbits until foxes came along and knocked the numbers back.
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[sara.smiles]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

In basic ecology class there was always the example of the exponential growth curve of rabbits until foxes came along and knocked the numbers back.

Well, to put it succintly, I think Mother Nature is p*ssed.

And Mellie's example is classic...but a probably more appropriate example is the bacterial culture in the laboratory Petri dish.

Once the number of organisms grows to a point where they have consumed the majority of their food source and contaminated their environment (and remaining food) with their wastes, the whole culture ends up dying. Think of Earth as a big Petri Dish and human beings as the bacteria and voila! The parallel is fairly plain, I believe.

Mother Nature tried the subtle approach with AIDS, but we managed to curb our sexual urges enough and develop and use adequate protection, that a majority of the population has survived. But ole Mom Nature...can you hear her laughing?...."Let's see 'em figure out how to stop BREATHING!"

Because nothing less will stop the transmission of the influenza virus once it mutates to an efficient H2H modality.

This is one of those days that I am grateful for two living parents, in their 80's, 16 living aunts and uncles, all over 60, and four grandparents who all lived well into their 80's. Gilgemesh wound my clock tight...I hope the workings are there to withstand H5N1 or whatever else Mom decides to throw our way.

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: "Hard Truths about the Bird Flu"

....while testing has been done by states and live bird markets, the findings haven’t been analyzed to draw conclusions about flu in U.S. bird populations or detect changes in types of flu or how widespread it is,

unbelievable - what's the point of testing with no summarization?

.