WHO to Convene International Conference on Bird Flu Response; Bush Announces Comprehensive National Plan

Today President Bush urged Congress to pass a $7.1 billion emergency supplemental to aid the nation’s preparedness for a bird flu pandemic. The President’s announcement comes just days before the start of the World Health Organization’s global bird flu summit, where countries will be urged to move beyond their national plans and focus on the global strategy necessary to fight a virus that respects no national borders. At both levels, the message is clear: we have the time and ability to prepare if we work together.

Spread of the disease is currently confined to animals and limited human infections coming from direct contact with sick birds. Yet with a disease that mutates quickly and has already proven deadly to humans, health experts are concerned about it eventually becoming a pandemic. At least three flu pandemics have ravaged the world in the last century, but this one is different – we know that it is coming. As the World Health Organization has stated, this early warning “has opened an unprecedented opportunity for international intervention aimed at delaying the emergence of a pandemic virus or forestalling its international spread.”

This is why November 7-9, the World Health Organization in conjunction with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Bank, and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) is convening an international meeting in Geneva to set a global agenda for action on bird flu. Entitled “The H5N1 Agenda: Towards a Global Strategy,” the meeting will focus on coordinating efforts of national governments and international organizations. Participants will discuss both controlling the animal disease and preparing for a human pandemic, as well as assisting affected countries and countries at risk.

Pandemics are world changing events, impacting every corner of the globe. At this stage we need to be preparing globally, nationally and locally for a pandemic flu outbreak. The proposed U.S. spending package announced today focused heavily on U.S. national priorities. These include increasing the national stockpile of antiviral drugs to ease severity of flu symptoms, increasing domestic flu vaccine development and production capacity, and strengthening both local and federal disease surveillance and healthcare infrastructures. The U.S. has also contributed funds and technical expertise to countries on the “frontlines” of bird flu outbreaks through USAID and the USDA.

Both of these events come amidst a growing number of regional and international conferences at all levels of government concerned with coordinating global bird flu preparedness and response plans. Last week, Ministers of Health and representatives from key international organizations met in Ottawa, Canada. Yesterday concluded a special meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), with representatives from the countries hardest hit by avian flu – also the countries expected to see the transfer between human and animal disease first. Representatives of the U.S. government were present at each of these.

+ Click here to read the WHO pre-meeting press statement


Updated November 1, 2005