Posted on 02/12/2006 5:38:26 PM PST by blam
Nigeria 'must act quickly to avoid bird flu'
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 13/02/2006)
The chances of a global influenza pandemic will be increased unless swift action is taken by Nigeria, the site of Africa's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, experts suggested yesterday.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is cursed by one of the world's most corrupt and ineffective governments.
A swan found dead on a beech in Greece
Dr David Nabarro, the United Nations bird flu chief, said that the arrival of the virus in Nigeria increased the prospect of it spreading worldwide, because several migratory routes intersect in that country.
Dr Nabarro said: "If it turns out that H5N1 was carried to west Africa by migratory birds, we need to be prepared for the possibility that within the next six months it could be brought back to the northern hemisphere - but perhaps along a different flight route.
"And that could mean that countries in Western Europe and North America should be bracing themselves for the possible introduction of H5N1 avian influenza," he said.
Lake Chad, a major stopping off point for migratory wildfowl, may have been the entry point for the virus in west Africa.
Officially, Nigerian bureaucrats have formally confirmed the presence of H5N1 on just four farms in the north of the country.
But media reports suggest that large numbers of birds have died on scores of farms across at least four states, and that the outbreak has been spreading for the past month.
Health ministry officials confirmed that they were testing two children who fell ill after contact with diseased birds last week.
If those tests are positive, they would be the first human victims of the deadly virus in Africa.
Against World Health Organisation advice, trade in live birds continued in northern cities, although sellers in Kano complained to reporters of falling trade.
Mohammed Belhoecine, the Nigeria representative of the WHO, said: "This is an emergency situation and it is very important to stop the handling, trading and movement of birds."
Farmers have received little information, and complained that compensation offered for culled birds was inadequate. Workers have been using bare hands to dispose of thousands of infected birds, raising fears of cross-infections.
Nigeria was urged to step up measures to control bird flu, clamp down on the poultry trade and use culling, vaccination and movement controls where outbreaks occur.
"Control measures need to be intensified," said a spokesman for the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
In Paris, the OIE said tests had confirmed that the Nigerian outbreak was from the same strain of bird flu as had proved fatal to humans in Turkey and China.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has shown itself to be virulent and highly pathogenic among birds, and capable of jumping the "species gap" to humans. It has killed at least 88 people.
Crucially, H5N1 spreads poorly, if at all, between humans. The majority of cases so far involve people living and working in close contact with infected poultry.
The ultimate fear of scientists is that a new strain of flu could emerge, that is both virulent and easily transmitted from human to human. That could spell the start of a global flu pandemic, which could leave tens of millions dead. Even healthy adults would have no antibody protections against such a new virus.
A likely scenario for a pandemic-causing mutation involves the bird flu infecting someone already suffering from conventional human flu, and exchanging genetic code within the patient's body.
H5N1 was first detected in Hong Kong in 1997 and resurfaced in South-East Asia in 2003.
It spread from Asia to south-eastern Europe and Turkey last October. The first two cases were confirmed inside the European Union last week, in Italy and Greece.
Avian flu has spread to another country with Azerbaijan saying on Friday that the lethal H5N1 strain had been found in wild birds floating dead on the Caspian Sea.
My name is Kwazi Mombasa. I is the exekutive attorney for the estate of a Nigerian PRINCE who recently died of the bird flu...
Mr Mombasa, we've done business before, just send the money to the same place you did last time, I will handle things on this end. Peace be with you.
Yes.
There's no way to stop this spread. It's just a matter of 'when, not if.'
A large population and a fair amount of disorder do not inspire confidence in them should major disease break out.
Nothing like a visual to make things crystal clear.
Great map!
We are so screwed.
There are many people that have been scoffing at concern about this.............I hope they are rethinking their attitude.
This is no laughing matter.
Hey mom, we're not gonna die of AIDS after all. (ahem)
No, we'll probably die of budgetary insufficiency before anything else.
You might want to research Hilary Koprowski's live polio virus testing in the Belgian Congo.
LOL.
Looks like it's time to move out west.
With my best politically correct face on - It seems that this group doesn't move quickly in response to epidemic disease prevention.
Don't be surprised to see the price of oil and gas increase because of this....Nigeria exports perhaps the best crude oil in the world.
There are rebels already attacking the off-shore sites. That's a problem too.
They will blame Bush or the cartoons or the t-shirts.
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