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Anti-Avian Flu Efforts Urged Health Ministers Plan Campaign

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By BETH DUFF-BROWN

OTTAWA - Canada's prime minister urged health ministers from around the world to quickly help Southeast Asian nations contain outbreaks of bird flu, and suggested efforts to prevent a global pandemic would also protect against potential bioterrorist attacks.

Paul Martin addressed 30 international health ministers and the heads of the World Health Organization and other U.N. agencies who came to Ottawa for a two-day brainstorming session on preventing and preparing for a flu pandemic.

"All of us recognize that the risk of a flu pandemic requires the world to act now. That is why the world is gathered at one table here today," Martin said. "Our planning and preparation for pandemic will inarguably help to put us in a better position to respond to other emerging diseases, to natural disasters and to threats of bioterrorism we may face in the future."

All officials at the conference agree on one thing: The first line of defense is at poultry farms in Southeast Asia, where 62 people have died from the disease, mostly in Vietnam and Thailand. The 62nd death - that of a 23-year-old man in Indonesia - was confirmed by a Hong Kong lab as the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and announced Tuesday by Indonesia's Health Ministry.

"The simple fact is that many impoverished families and farmers may consider it too risky to report sick animals - they're the source of their food as well as their livelihood, so it's often customary to kill animals that get sick, to be eaten or sold," said Martin.

Bird flu has swept through poultry populations across Asia since 2003, resulting in the deaths or destruction of 140 million chickens and ducks.

Though human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person, possibly causing a pandemic that could kill millions. The last major pandemic, the Spanish flu in 1918, killed up to an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

Canada has been credited with having one of the best national pandemic plans in place. It's the first country to have a domestic contract with a private pharmaceutical company to create enough flu vaccines for Canada's 32 million people in the event of a pandemic and has an action plan among its city, provincial and federal health officials.

Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief medical officer, said Canada would increase its stockpile of antiviral drugs by buying an additional 5 million pills of Tamiflu, the drug believed to be the only known antiviral that could minimize the impact of a pandemic.

That would bring holdings in the country to 40 million pills - enough to treat 4 million people if the current regimen of two pills a day for five days is sufficient to combat the influenza strain that causes a future pandemic.

However, Roche Canada on Monday took the highly unusual step of temporarily halting sales of Tamiflu, concerned about its diminishing stock in Canada.

In a letter to Canadian pharmacies, the Canadian arm of Roche, which holds the patent on Tamiflu, said shipments of the drug would end immediately until flu season begins in December, and nursing homes and hospitals would get priority when sales resume.

On Tuesday, Mexico's Health Minister Julio Frenk was expected to call on developed nations to set aside 10 percent of their stores of antivirals for poorer ones.

"Just imagine the ethical, political and security implications of a world where only rich countries have access to lifesaving drugs or vaccines, and the rest of the world stands while they march toward death," Frenk told The Canadian Press. "That is an unsustainable scenario."

Canada's Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said a showdown over Tamiflu may be in the works and that some countries, such as India, might be forced to ignore international patent regulations and develop generic versions of the drug.

"It may not be resolved here, but there are countries out there that are saying they will defy patent protections - and we couldn't be judgmental if people are dying," Dosanjh said.

The World Trade Organization in 2003 decided to allow governments to override patents during national health crises, though no member state has invoked the clause.

To learn more

ON THE INTERNET:

Federal agency Health Canada:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca

Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian

World Health Organization:

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/

avian_influenza/en/index.html

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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