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BIRD FLU COULD INFECT 30% OF COSTA RICAN POPULATION, EXPERTS SAY
July 12, 2006 (Inside Costa Rica)
Costa Rican authorities say that a pandemic breakout of "gripe aviar" - bird flu - in America could affect as many as 30% of the Costa Rican population, which would collapse the health system and incapacitate other services.
Up to 1 million in Costa Rica could be infected, of which authorities believe 450.000 will need medical treatment.
At least that is what Carlos Amayoa, the Costa Rican representative of the Organizaci?n Panamericana de la Salud (OPS), which is emphasizing to authorities that the H5N1 virus that is currently present in Asia has mutated from transmission from birds to humans and will soon pass from human to human.
"We don't know when it will reach America, but it will", said the experts, who refused to give a timeline. However, some experts are daring to say the virus will reach America as early as October.
The alert comes from a discovery in Indonesia where various members of the same family were infected. Authorities say that the members infected each other, discovery that the infection was not of the definitive virus.
Amayoa said that the epidemic will expand as it will be difficult to control the movement of those infected as the symptoms do not appear immediately. It will be impossible to detain air transport and the control systems at the airports will be of no use to detain the spreading of the virus.
Amayoa added that in Central America, Costa Rica is the better equipped to handle the coming epidemic, even though the public is not prepared.
An OPS delegation will be in Costa Rica on August 11 and 12 to determine the level of preparation in Costa Rica. In the event on an emergency, schools and community centres will be used to give medical attention to patients in the event of a failure in the medical system.
"Those who get infected and survive will become immune" said Amayoa, who added that a vaccine is at least six months away.
Yeserday, officials of the OPS signed a deal with the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo for financial support in the event of the spreading of the infection, including donating funds to smaller countries to develop their own emergency plans.
To date, 150 million birds have been sacrificed and 247 people have been infected worldwide. One half of those infected have died.
Experts say that up to 70 million worldwide could die from bird flu.
Source
July 12, 2006 (Inside Costa Rica)
Costa Rican authorities say that a pandemic breakout of "gripe aviar" - bird flu - in America could affect as many as 30% of the Costa Rican population, which would collapse the health system and incapacitate other services.
Up to 1 million in Costa Rica could be infected, of which authorities believe 450.000 will need medical treatment.
At least that is what Carlos Amayoa, the Costa Rican representative of the Organizaci?n Panamericana de la Salud (OPS), which is emphasizing to authorities that the H5N1 virus that is currently present in Asia has mutated from transmission from birds to humans and will soon pass from human to human.
"We don't know when it will reach America, but it will", said the experts, who refused to give a timeline. However, some experts are daring to say the virus will reach America as early as October.
The alert comes from a discovery in Indonesia where various members of the same family were infected. Authorities say that the members infected each other, discovery that the infection was not of the definitive virus.
Amayoa said that the epidemic will expand as it will be difficult to control the movement of those infected as the symptoms do not appear immediately. It will be impossible to detain air transport and the control systems at the airports will be of no use to detain the spreading of the virus.
Amayoa added that in Central America, Costa Rica is the better equipped to handle the coming epidemic, even though the public is not prepared.
An OPS delegation will be in Costa Rica on August 11 and 12 to determine the level of preparation in Costa Rica. In the event on an emergency, schools and community centres will be used to give medical attention to patients in the event of a failure in the medical system.
"Those who get infected and survive will become immune" said Amayoa, who added that a vaccine is at least six months away.
Yeserday, officials of the OPS signed a deal with the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo for financial support in the event of the spreading of the infection, including donating funds to smaller countries to develop their own emergency plans.
To date, 150 million birds have been sacrificed and 247 people have been infected worldwide. One half of those infected have died.
Experts say that up to 70 million worldwide could die from bird flu.
Source