November 1, 2005

 

Pacific Rim needs to coordinate bird flu response

 

 

Pacific Rim nations needed to coordinate their responses to bird flu and a possible human flu pandemic, a US expert said Tuesday as disaster coordinators from the region met for a second day in Australia.

 

"Each country has to develop its own method of responding and coping with the disease and they need to coordinate that together," Larry Granger of the US Department of Agriculture said, on the sidelines of the meeting of experts from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the eastern city of Brisbane.

 

Granger said countries battling bird flu and fearing the virus could mutate into a human flu strain must work together on the human and animal aspects of prevention.

 

"There needs to be some broad recognition of the fact that there is a confluence of public health, human health, animal health and veterinary science," he said.

 

"We can't just focus on human health and the consequences of a pandemic without considering the effect on animal health, and the mitigations that can be used there to keep the pandemic from occurring," he added.

 

Speaking Monday night, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer urged calm over fears about the spread of bird flu.

 

"There is no need to panic at this stage and we shouldn't overstate the risk," Downer told reporters before addressing the officials, who represented the 21-member APEC forum.

 

Disaster and pandemic coordinators from APEC countries, along with health, animal and quarantine officials, were meeting for a second day Tuesday behind closed doors to formulate a plan on best ways to deal with various threat levels posed by diseases such as bird flu.

 

The meeting came ahead of the APEC forum summit that was expected to bring top officials together in Busan, South Korea, in mid-November. Fighting bird flu and trying to prevent a flu pandemic would be high on the agenda.

 

APEC members include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Taipei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, US and Vietnam.