A lot of that money is now being spent in countries, in Indonesia, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in countries in central and eastern Europe such as Turkey, Nigeria, and also Central Asia. |
Act as though a pandemic influenza will start tomorrow. Don't think we can wait around and not worry it won't start for six months or one year. Once, it starts it is too late to prepare. |
African countries and the United Nations system must contribute resources to make up for this, in the hope that development partners will react rapidly. |
And then there will be an interval of perhaps six months until we have a reasonable quantity of vaccine. |
Detecting and culling infected birds is still the key, and for that we have to compensate the owners of chicken whose flocks are killed. And we have to limit interaction between humans and birds, which is a huge challenge within an environment where people are used to living very close to their chickens. |
Every country in the world now needs to have its veterinary services on high alert for H5N1 to be sure they are not caught unawares. |
H5N1 is causing a massive epidemic of lethal avian influenza. |
I don't want to scare anyone but the truth is this virus is undergoing changes slowly. This warning that nature is giving us has to be heeded. |
I think there is a reasonably good chance ... that people will congeal around a set of basic principles and elements for what will become an international program which can then be presented to the donor community over the next couple of months. |
If there is delay in getting culling teams out, delay in any part of the chain, even weeks, that could have great implications for the virus to spread. |
It is certainly within the next six to 12 months; it could be earlier. |
It is quite feasible that H5N1 could mutate. The fact that it has taken some years should not lead you to believe that we are through the worst. |
It may be more important to concentrate on the essentials of life for those who are living than it is to focus on the treatment of those who are sick. |
It seems to kill a very large proportion of the birds that it infects. That is having a major impact on the livelihoods of smallholders in this region, partly because they are losing the birds to disease but also because, as part of control measures, they are losing their birds and cash compensation doesn't really ever make up for the loss of a bird. |
It simply is telling us that the virus may be changing the way it interacts with humans. It does not tell us that the risk of a mutation that causes the pandemic is increasing or decreasing. |