Africa 'needs bird flu fund'
2006-03-09 12:18
Nairobi - The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday advised African countries to set up a fund worth billions of dollars to counter the effects of bird flu should the deadly H5N1 strain spread across the world's poorest continent.
WHO director-general Lee Jong Wook said there was a need for a "fund" to cover the economic loss that would run into billions of dollars should the infection spread across the continent, home to about 800 million people.
Wook said: "Governments, including developing countries, should commit their own resources to deal with this problem... If there are shortfalls, these shortfalls clearly have to come from international partners."
He said that African countries could not depend on $1.9bn pledged last month by countries and organisations for a first-ever global war against the virus, which was at risk of becoming a pandemic.
Compensation for chicken
He said: "I know from experience that pledges are not payments... we are working on making the pledges real.
"I just can't imagine that rich countries or donor countries will come to compensate for chicken, which will be sacrificed in the backyard of some villages in some place" in Africa.
He expressed fear that Africa would have a hard time controlling the disease.
WHO said: "There are small backyard flocks of chicken... the dilemma is how can we convince the village people to get rid of apparently healthy chickens.
"I don't imagine the village people will cull, sacrifice their dozens of chicken on a promise that a certain day, they will be compensated.
"This compensation issue is a big issue and this will be a big burden on many governments."
Millions of people could die
Although the H5N1 strain did not spread easily between people, those who come in contact with sick birds could contract it and scientists said millions of people worldwide could die if it mutated into a disease communicable among humans.
Wook said: "Every country in the world is at risk... nobody is safe."
Dozens of countries had now been hit by the H5N1 strain, which began in east Asia and spread west to Europe and Africa and had killed about 90 people worldwide.
In Africa, the strain had been found in Nigeria, Egypt and Niger, while several countries had put measure to fight the disease.