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Americans, Europeans polled on bird flu

 

By Thanassis Stavrakis, AP

Posted 10/19/2005 2:22 PM

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Large segments of the populations in the United States and Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Britain are expressing concerns about the spread of bird flu.

 

An Ipsos poll conducted before the disease had spread to Europe found those in Spain and Italy were most concerned, with about half the people in those countries saying they are worried. Only a third in the United States say they are worried.

 

Roughly four in 10 in Britain and France and three in 10 in Germany say they're worried. Fears about the bird flu tend to increase among older people in all of the European countries.

 

A third of those polled in the United States and France said they don't know enough about bird flu to have an opinion, while a fourth in Britain and Spain said they don't know enough about it.

 

Scientists fear the virus, which so far has been spread primarily to poultry workers by infected birds, could mutate into a form more easily transmitted between people and lead to a pandemic.

 

European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia to Europe a "global threat."

 

As anxiety rises about the threat of bird flu, governments are taking steps to prepare for the possible spread of the disease. In the countries polled, government officials are making preparations to stockpile millions of doses of vaccines in case of a pandemic virus.

 

And governments are taking additional steps:

 

•In France, 50 million masks to protect against bird flu are being delivered to French hospitals, and by year's end 200 million masks should be available.

 

•In Italy, dozens of extra veterinarians have been hired to help authorities monitor the health of poultry and label poultry to indicate where the meat comes from.

 

•In Britain, the government has asked hunting and conservation groups to help monitor the country's bird population.

 

•In Spain, the government has put a ban on bird imports from affected countries Romania and Turkey. And citizens most at risk would be protected through an anti-flu vaccination campaign.

 

•In Germany, farmers are being asked to keep their poultry inside and away from any risk of contact with migrating birds.

 

The polling of about 1,000 adults in each of the countries was done Sept 23-Oct. 1. Each survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-1...dflu-poll_x.htm

 

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That said, here's Spain's "official" response to its citizens' fears:

 

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Bird flu sparking human epidemic is 'science fiction': Spain

 

Oct 19 11:09 AM US/Eastern

 

Spain's agriculture minister dismissed fears bird flu sparking a global epidemic among humans as "science fiction", saying the virus currently only poses a threat to birds.

 

"The idea of a pandemic among humans is something from science fiction," Spanish Agricultural Minister Elena Espinosa said on the private radio station Cadena Ser, as Europe braced for the further spread of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu, which has killed 60 people in Asia during the past three years.

 

Outbreaks of the H5N1 strain have been confirmed in Romania and Turkey, while further tests are being conducted on a suspect case in Greece.

 

Currently the bird flu is "solely and exclusively a veterinary problem," said Espinosa.

 

Human infections in Asia were "in very specific poultry raising situations where the families lived with the chickens and infection was due to constant inhalation," Espinosa said.

 

While H5N1 currently does not spread easily between people, many scientists fear that it may combine with seasonal influenza in humans, mutating into an easily transmissible form that could kill millions like in the 1918 influenza pandemic.

 

However, Espinosa announced increased surveillance measures and that the stockpile of bird flu vaccine for chickens would be doubled to 10 million doses.

 

She said a quarantine would be set up around any suspected bird flu outbreaks, with poultry in nearby areas receiving vaccinations.

 

The Spanish government decided Tuesday to buy six to 10 million doses of anti-viral drugs for groups most at risk for human flu.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/19/0...2.ke81exhc.html

 

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Mexico urges nations to share flu drugs

 

By Beth Duff-Brown, Associated Press Writer | October 25, 2005

 

OTTAWA --Mexico's health minister urged wealthy nations to help provide flu drugs to the developing world, saying Tuesday that the divide between the rich and the poor would be catastrophic in the event of a global bird flu pandemic.

 

"I think the ethical, the political, the future security implications of the situation where only the wealthy countries have access to vaccines and drugs would be unimaginable," Julio Frenk told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a conference to prepare for a global flu pandemic. "It would be as harmful, or even more harmful, than the pandemic itself."

 

Frenk, attending the two-day conference with 30 health ministers and the heads of the World Health Organization and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, put forward a proposal to devote a percentage of antivirals and future vaccines for developing nations. While earlier reports had said he would suggest 10 percent, Frenk said he did not present a specific figure.

 

Ministers hedged any commitment, however, to set aside antivirals or future vaccines and said the World Health Organization should be the repository of any pandemic drugs. They added that the industrialized nations were working on a plan to assist WHO in the case of a pandemic and deploy to developing nations to help them contain any outbreaks.

 

"There was an alternative approach that we discussed as well, that WHO should be the first line for defense," said Canada's Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh. "We should come to terms on a protocol among those countries that can help, have the assets to deploy in a very strategic fashion to contain the virus if and when it starts."

 

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said it was crucial that the public not panic, but educate itself about a potential bird flu pandemic.

 

"Our jobs as ministers of health secretaries is to find the balance between informing and inflaming, to inspire people to prepare, not to panic," Leavitt said. "What we do know is that there will likely be another pandemic; whether the H5N1 virus will be the spark that establishes that is unknown to us. Our objective is to prepare for the short and long term."

 

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

 

Sixty-two people have died in Southeast Asia from avian flu, mostly in Vietnam and Thailand. 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.

 

Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director general of the World Health Organization, said early detection, containment and compensation for the impoverished poultry farmers who reveal their cases of bird flu were crucial components to preventing a global pandemic.

 

"What's the incentive for them to report? People come and slaughter all of their chickens," Lee said. "Clearly, some countries are doing better than others, but there should be some understanding and compensation for the farmers."

 

As the countries talked about sharing resources and stockpiling the coveted anti-flu drug Tamiflu, the Canadian arm of Swiss drug giant Roche announced Tuesday that it was suspending private sales of the drug in Canada until the flu season begins in December because soaring sales threaten to drain the seasonal flu allocation.

 

"We saw more demand one day last week than we did the whole previous year," said Paul Brown, a vice president of Roche Canada in Toronto.

 

Though earlier news reports indicated that the temporary freeze by Roche was worldwide, Roche headquarters in Geneva emphasized that suspending sales was up to individual countries.

 

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

 

Two drugs that fight regular flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, are thought to be effective in treating flu caused by H5N1 if administered quickly.

 

Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief medical officer, said Canada had a stockpile of some 35 million Tamiflu tablets -- enough to treat 3.5 million people -- yet he himself has not bought any for his family because it is only an antiviral that mitigates flu symptoms, not a vaccine.

 

"It is not the ultimate answer, it is not something which we can look to for some magic cure," he said.

 

Mexico