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Bird flu: Africa needs $1bn
08/06/2006 10:10 - (SA)
Vienna - The United Nations' bird flu chief said on Wednesday the three-year estimate of funds needed to stem the deadly virus in Africa could be as high as $1bn.
David Nabarro noted that funds pledged at a donor's conference in Beijing in January - after the disease was primarily in Asia and entered eastern Europe - totalled about $1.9bn.
He said: "Now, we've got a situation where the disease is moving quite energetically into Africa, and new countries are reporting avian influenza at quite frequent intervals.
Nabarro said: "Proportionally, it certainly seems to me to be appropriate that the three-year estimate for Africa" was between $500m and $1bn.
'We need money'
Nabarro emphasised that it was important not to get caught up with long-term figures, but to focus on rapid delivery for countries that needed the money now.
He said: "We need money to be moving into Africa in support of countries really very quickly ... good money that's nice and flexible."
He was speaking after a two-day meeting of high-level officials from more than 70 countries and international institutions, including the World Health Organisation and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu had killed 128 people worldwide since it began spreading in Asia in late 2003.
30 countries pledge $1.9bn to fight H5N1
It also was being blamed for the death or slaughter of some 200 million birds.
The Vienna meeting was a follow-up to the gathering in Beijing, where more than 30 countries pledged nearly $1.9bn to fight the deadly virus.
Austrian health minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said that so far only $286m had been disbursed and $1bn had been committed.
High-level officials would next meet in Africa in six months for a similar meeting, and later in India, a year from now. Nabarro said that within the next six months, all countries that pledged funds in Beijing should commit them.
US 'working very aggressively'
Earlier on Wednesday, Paula Dobriansky, United States undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, said America would disburse the remainder of the money it committed earlier this year - a total of $334m.
She said: "We're working very aggressively and I would say very expeditiously."
Dobriansky said the US would increase its contribution for bird flu by $28m. She said that so far $70m in US help had been disbursed.
Also earlier, the European Commission and the World Bank announced the creation of a multi-donor trust fund aimed at helping developing countries boost their bird flu preparedness and minimised the possibility of a human flu pandemic.
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