Bird Flu Panic Spreads Across Europe

LUXEMBOURG: EU foreign ministers held emergency talks on the approaching danger of avian flu yesterday, as Greece investigated what could prove to be the first appearance of the deadly strain in an EU member state.

Swiss drugmaker Roche, pressed to raise output of antiviral flu drug Tamiflu, said it would consider allowing rival firms and governments to produce it under licence for emergency pandemic use. A Dutch company said it was working on a vaccine.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, chairing the EU meeting, said its main purpose was to reassure citizens that every precaution was being taken to prevent the avian influenza outbreak mutating into a pandemic that could kill humans.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged calm after the emergence of the H5N1 strain of the virus, potentially fatal to human beings, in birds in Turkey and Romania.

“I don’t think we have to enter into panic,” Solana said.

Greece was testing a bird found on the tiny eastern Aegean island of Inousses to establish if the birdflu virus it bore was the H5N1 strain, which first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 and has killed more than 60 people. “As a purely precautionary measure we have … imposed an export ban of living poultry, meat and other poultry products from the region of Chios to other areas, the EU member states and third countries,” Greek Agriculture Minister Evangelos Basiakos said.

Scientists fear that if the bird flu virus passes on any large scale from birds to humans it could mutate into a variety that could spread easily between humans. In a virulent form, they say, this could kill millions worldwide.

No human cases of the virus have been found in Europe.

The World Health Organization has expressed fears that alarm in Europe could distract attention from what is the real seat of the danger in Southeast Asia. More than 60 people have died of the disease in Asia where, by contrast to Europe, people often live close to poultry and are exposed to a greater peril.

Countries on high alert

EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said after briefing EU foreign ministers he did not think the presence of avian flu in Europe increased the danger of a human influenza pandemic. He said more than a half of EU states had placed orders for anti-viral flu drugs.

Media coverage of the approach of bird flu, which scientists believe is being borne over Europe by birds migrating to Africa, has been coloured by more than a hint of extreme alarm in several countries.

In Bulgaria, which neighbours Romania and Turkey, newspapers have spoken of “panic” and “hysteria”.

Sofia has urged calm but is preparing a national crisis headquarters and stepping up border controls and surveillance of poultry farms and wetlands near its Danube River boundary seen as a major conduit for migrating birds.

Romania said it had detected new cases of suspected bird flu in the Danube delta, one of them close to the border with Ukraine. Tests were being carried out to see whether it was the H5 virus, of which H5N1 is a deadly sub-strain.

Croatia is also testing dead birds found by citizens.

Greece, however, was the focus of attention yesterday, where results of tests for the H5N1 virus were awaited. Greeks sought out the antiviral drug Tamiflu, reflecting growing demand throughout Europe.

Besides the human danger, countries visited by bird flu in its various forms can face grave economic losses. The milder H5N7 strain struck the Netherlands in 2003, prompting slaughter of 30 million birds and losses estimated at 500 million euros.

Dutch homeowners who keep chickens or turkeys will have to have them vaccinated, the Dutch Agriculture Ministry said yesterday. Minister Cees Veerman has asked the European Commission for permission to commence vaccination in the Netherlands. “The minister wants vaccination for birds kept for hobby reasons as they might come in contact with infected wild birds. We think that it is not necessary to vaccinate poultry kept for commercial reasons for now,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

“We are waiting for an answer from Brussels,” she added.

The EU usually sees vaccination as a last resort and bans livestock and meat imports from countries which use vaccination to prevent and control outbreaks of deadly disease.

In August, the Dutch Government made farmers keep all poultry indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds coming from Russia, where the H5N1 strain, potentially lethal to humans, was found in several regions. The government relaxed the measure in September, saying it appeared that the outbreak was under control.

Australia seeks to calm fears

The Australian Government sought to quell fears of a bird flu pandemic yesterday, saying it was building stocks of anti-viral drugs and would consider national vaccinations if trials of a new vaccine were successful.

“This is a government which takes national security seriously and that’s not just national security against terrorism, it is national security against all forms of threat, including biological threat,” Health Minister Tony Abbott said.

He said the government was awaiting the results of a vaccine being developed by Australian company CSL Ltd. The company was to begin human trials this month, with results by the end of the year. CSL is the world’s top maker of human plasma products.

“If the live trials currently taking place look promising, in the new year we will consider whether we need to build up a supply of this, so that if necessary we can vaccinate the whole population,” he told Special Broadcasting Service television.

However, some experts say that if the H5N1 strain of bird flu begins to easily infect humans, it could move too quickly for drugs and vaccines to be of much use.

The seasonal flu vaccine provides no protection against H5N1 avian flu. There is an experimental vaccine but there are only a few thousand doses and it is unlikely to provide perfect protection.