INTERVIEW-Bird flu steps to boost Africa animal, human health
By Alistair Thomson
BAMAKO, Dec 6 (Reuters) - International aid to help Africa fight off bird flu should give a shot in the arm to public health and veterinary services and help the continent tackle its many other health scourges, the U.N. bird flu coordinator said.
"This continent is affected by quite a number of development and humanitarian challenges, some of which are very well known, including malaria and HIV," David Nabarro said ahead of a global summit on bird flu in Mali, West Africa, starting on Wednesday.
"I think African heads of state would be forgiven for saying 'Well, thanks for coming and telling us about this challenge -- we will add it to our list'," Nabarro said.
The summit, which will include a donor conference on Friday to raise more than $1 billion in new funds to fight the disease over the next two to three years, will review progress around the world, including Asia, hardest-hit by the deadly H5N1 virus.
Much of the new money is destined for Africa, which has seen eight countries infected since the last donor conference in Beijing in January.
Experts will discuss how best to monitor and control the disease given weak human and animal health systems on the world's poorest continent.
"Human public health will be improved, which is the health of populations. Yes, I'd like to see hospitals improved, but in the long term what matters is that the health of the wider public gets systematic attention," Nabarro said.
"That may include hospital beds, but it may also include other services provided by surveillance teams and response teams, so yes, there is a capacity for human public health to improve greatly," he said.
Nabarro acknowledged there were few resources available for healthcare in Africa, but said progress was possible with the resources that were available.
"There has been really big investment in this continent on polio surveillance. Why can't we piggy-back influenza surveillance on the back of that?" he said.
CLEANING UP
Since the outbreak began in Asia in 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected at least 258 people who came into contact with sick birds, killing 154 of them, according to World Health Organisation records.
Scientists' greatest fear is that the virus will mutate into a form able to pass from human to human, triggering off a global flu pandemic killing tens of millions of people.
They say that risk can be cut by reducing contact with sick birds by selling and slaughtering poultry more carefully.
"Go to a poultry farm in Thailand these days and it's like going into an operating theatre in a hospital," Nabarro said. "Go to a market ... and the slaughter is carried out under controlled conditions, subject to inspections."
But Thailand and its hygiene rules are a long way from Bamako, the venue for this week's meeting.
Here in the city's open air Dibida market, chickens are slaughtered, plucked and dismembered by workers using no protective clothing within a couple of feet of cages packed with live hens, guinea fowl and other birds waiting to be sold.
"Any effort to prepare globally for a possible pandemic cannot afford to neglect the needs of the animal health sector, and crisis preparedness, in Africa," Nabarro said.
