The virus now has very definitely found its way into the African subcontinent, and we have a different situation that has emerged with even more H5N1 in our world. |
There are some quite tricky challenges facing everybody working in Crimea and I shall be engaging with various government people. |
There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1. That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl. |
There is too much H5N1 virus in very close contact with humans in this region. We need, in a painstaking and careful way, to reduce the opportunities for this virus to be jumping across into the human population. That will in turn reduce the likelihood of a major pandemic. |
There will be an influenza pandemic sometime, but we don't know when. It could be mild, it could be severe, it could be extremely severe. |
There's consensus. There's clarity. There's cash. There is much better coordination. We should be able to deal with the bird flu epidemic much quicker and ... if the pandemic comes, it will be smaller as a result of what's gone on at this meeting. |
To scale up vet services is a pretty tall order. They haven't had the level of investment they should have had during the last three or four decades. And you can't suddenly turn a switch to get vet services working well. You have got to train the vets. You have to build the systems. |
Unfortunately I can't give you any precise information as to when the mutation of H5N1 to a form that can be transmitted between humans will actually take place. |
Unless we are working as one, we don't get a good result. |
Vietnam can provide some valuable lessons to the rest of the world, not only in its fight against a potential epidemic, but also in its donor and government cooperation. |
We are losing the battle against this particular avian influenza outbreak. It is a very nasty bird flu virus. |
We are watching very closely to see how the disease associated with bird flu, when it hits humans, is evolving. |
We believe that it is starting to spread into Africa. I do hope that the Malawi case is not H5N1. If they are, then it's very serious. |
We cannot have a vaccine against a pandemic virus until the pandemic virus appears. |
We did discuss in China as well the importance of trying to restrict movements of chickens from areas that are infected, including across borders. |