Sars tactics in bird flu fight

2004-01-27 15:22

Bangkok - Asian nations battered by bird flu will hold crisis talks here on Wednesday amid calls for them to unite against the outbreak in the same way they co-operated to fight last year's Sars epidemic.

Ten Asian countries have now confirmed they have been hit by bird flu, killing at least eight people and leading to the slaughter or death of more than 20 million chickens.

"The Sars outbreak produced a spirit of transparency and co-operation among nations," said World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson Peter Cordingley. "That's what we need for the bird flu conference.

"We need countries to open up and share information in the way they did against Sars," he said of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak that erupted in southern China and killed some 800 people in 32 countries.

With the disease now spreading apparently uncontrolled as far west as Pakistan and as far east as Japan, the Thai hosts said they hoped the half-day talks would restore confidence in the region's shattered poultry industry.

Ministers and senior officials from agriculture and health ministries from the affected nations of Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan and Vietnam have been invited to attend.

China, which confirmed an outbreak of bird flu on Tuesday evening, will send its deputy agriculture minister, while other regional nations like Malaysia that have so far escaped the disease will be represented.

The United States, the European Union, the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have also been invited, foreign ministry spokesperson Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

Officials from Hong Kong, where a bird flu outbreak killed six people in 1997, have been invited as part of the Chinese delegation.

The meeting is aimed at devising international initiatives to stem the spread of bird flu.

"The meeting reflects the region's seriousness about tackling the problems," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said.

The talks represent the first marshalling of Asian co-operation since last April's emergency summit here of 10 Southeast Asian nations plus China, which together forged a successful regional framework to contain Sars.

The WHO has said that while humans had so far only caught bird flu from infected animals, it had the potential to be more devastating than Sars if it mutated into a form that could be transmitted between humans.

Many Asian governments will go into the talks with confidence in them shaken by accusations that they aggravated the health crisis by deliberately covering up outbreaks of bird flu in an attempt to protect their poultry industries.

- AFP