July 17, 2006

Russia proposes taking lead in regional bird-flu monitoring

Russia's chief epidemiologist said Saturday (Jul 15) that Russia had proposed it take the lead in coordinating bird flu monitoring in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Gennady Onishchenko said that Russia had suggested it become a "sub-regional leader" and was already equipped with a bird flu reference centre to monitor and diagnose the disease as well as take preventive actions to stop its spread.

Onishchenko said the bird flu situation in Russia was under complete control, but suggested that the disease could recur in the Novosibirsk and Altai regions, since young birds have begun molting.

The fight against the spread of infectious disease is one of the three core topics at this year's Group of Eight summit, which opens Saturday in St Petersburg. The World Health Organization's acting director general Anders Nordstrom will attend the meetings.

A key question is whether the G-8 leaders' statements will translate into more money to fight diseases such as bird flu, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

In an interview earlier this month, Nordstrom said the WHO had collected only about one-third of the US$100 million that donor countries had pledged to the organization in January as part of a US$1.9 billion package for responding to bird flu outbreaks.