11 October 2005

Bird Flu Concerns Take U.S. Health Secretary to Asia, October 11, 2005

(Leavitt travels through four nations as disease fears rise in Europe)

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt is getting an on-the-ground look at the steps Asian nations are taking to control bird flu as he visits Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Leavitt will visit facilities such as poultry farms, markets, agricultural districts and medical laboratories, according to a Washington-based spokesman, to see the environments where avian influenza has flourished since December 2003.

A highly pathogenic form of avian influenza – H5N1 – has been confirmed in 11 nations and has caused the deaths of more than 150 million birds.

Humans also have been infected in almost 120 cases confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) so far, and more infections are expected. Sixty of those cases have proved fatal.

Leavitt and other global health leaders warn that this infectious strain of bird flu could set off a global pandemic, causing the deaths of millions.

That outcome would depend on whether H5N1 mutates to become a disease easily transmitted among humans. So far, most patients have been exposed to the disease through direct contact with infected birds.

H5N1 has proved lethal in its own right, but epidemiologists have further reason to believe that a global disease outbreak is looming. Flu epidemics come in cycles, with three in the last century in 1918-1919, 1957-1958 and1968-1969.

“[T]he likelihood of another is very high, some say even certain,” Leavitt said October 11 in Bangkok briefing after meeting with Thai officials.

WHO Director General Dr. Lee Jong-wook and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky are accompanying Leavitt on this trip.

LEAVITT’S MISSION

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the agencies with the Department of Health and Human Services, is involved in a partnership with the Thai Ministry of Public Health to operate an International Emerging Infections Program that is conducting disease surveillance in Thailand to track the movement of bird flu.

Leavitt is visiting that program on this tour. In all four nations he will meet with ministers of health, and in some countries he will also meet with ministers of agriculture and heads of state, in what Washington-based spokeswoman Christina Pearson describes as a relationship-building tour.

Leavitt’s trip began just days after the United States on October 7 hosted the first meeting of some 80 nations joined in an International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.

President Bush announced formation of the partnership at the U.N. General Assembly in September. A senior State Department official said the partnership meetings focused on three primary topics:

• Prevention -- Limiting the spread of the disease and reducing the risk to humans;

• Response and containment -- Planning rapid action at the first sign of sustained human transmission; and

• Preparedness and planning -- Developing national plans for action in the event of outbreaks. (See related article.)

DISEASE REPORTS IN EUROPE

This almost two-year-old outbreak of avian influenza began in Southeast Asia. It moved into Central Asia in August with reports of disease in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Now, Turkey and Romania report sickness in birds that appears to be avian influenza, though official laboratory confirmation is still in process.

In western Turkey, 1,700 domestic birds succumbed to illness, according to a report submitted to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

Authorities have followed up with roadblocks around the village involved, according to press reports, as tests are conducted to identify the pathogen.

From eastern Romania near the Black Sea comes another report of avian flu among 100 ducks and hens on a single farm, though H5N1 is not confirmed.

Romania reports to the OIE that it has undertaken various approaches to control the outbreak, including quarantine, disinfection of the scene and screening of birds.

Romania also reports that wild birds are suspected as the source of infection.

When Russia confirmed avian influenza in August with 120,000 birds dead or destroyed, likelihood was raised that the virus could follow migratory bird routes into the Balkans and the rest of Europe. (See related article.)

For more information, see Bird Flu.