Opening Remarks to the Plenary Session of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza Senior Officials Meeting

Thank you Minister Rauch-Kallat and the Austrian Government for organizing and hosting this important event. Mr. Richelle and the European Commission, we also appreciate your hard work bringing this meeting together. And I would like to acknowledge Ambassador Guoquiang the head of the delegation from China, Dr. Traore of the African Union, and of course Dr. David Nabarro, UN Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza. And good morning to all the esteemed senior officials here today to discuss the way forward in dealing with avian and pandemic influenza.

I would first like to express our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, Director General of the WHO. He was a dedicated and passionate leader for improving health worldwide. And Dr. Lee was a powerful force in driving the World Health Organization to rise to the call and coordinate world efforts on the human health aspects of avian influenza. We would not have achieved much of the progress to date without his engagement. We will miss him deeply as a statesman and a very dear friend.

Human cases of avian flu are limited and there is no evidence yet of sustained, efficient human-to-human transmission. If this does begin to occur, in the worst-case scenario, it could kill millions of people, cripple economies, bring international trade and travel to a standstill, and jeopardize political stability.

Its impact on agricultural economies is already being felt among the 51 nations with cases of avian influenza.
Avian influenza, and with it the potential for a human pandemic, is not merely a health issue. It is an economic issue, a social issue, and a security issue.

When I addressed the first meeting of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza last October, awareness was just growing worldwide that avian and pandemic influenza was not just a concern of Asia, but posed a global threat.

As Minister Rauch-Kallat noted, disease knows no borders. This global issue requires a global response. And the world has made great progress improving preparedness and communications, surveillance and detection, and response and containment.

On preparedness and communications, nations around the world have organized themselves to develop and implement national plans. The WHO reports that 176 countries have at least draft plans, including all the nations of the Western Hemisphere. In the United States, we launched our National Strategy on November 1 and last month rolled out the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy.

• Nations have devised communication campaigns to build awareness of the threat of avian influenza, to inform their citizens how to act to protect themselves and their communities, and instructed people what to do in the case of a human pandemic.
  The United States has been pleased to support planning and communication efforts in 46 nations.
• Countries have developed domestic stockpiles of medicines, personal protective equipment, and other supplies to respond to avian flu outbreaks and a potential human pandemic. We have also contributed to international stockpiles of medicines and other commodities.
• Our Secretary for Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, announced at the World Health Assembly just last month the United States’ initial stockpile of anti-virals has been positioned in Asia for possible use in the region. These critical medicines would be available in the event of a human pandemic to those countries that have taken appropriate steps to prepare and share data;
• The U.S is spending some $66 million to develop international stockpiles of health supplies to contain animal and human outbreaks;
• Japan has also made contributions of anti-virals to an international stockpile.
• International organizations are expanding their capacity as well. For example, FAO is developing a Crisis Management Center to better enable the provision of support to nations responding to animal outbreaks. We have provided over $36 million to support the work of international organizations such as WHO, FAO, and OiE; and also $41 million for international research activities worldwide.
• An excellent example of world action was the donor’s conference in Beijing last January where $1.9 billion was pledged to strengthen capacity to prepare and respond to avian and pandemic influenza. In Beijing, the United States announced its contribution of $334 million.

Regarding surveillance and detection, we have also made good progress. At the World Health Assembly countries agreed to accelerate implementation of International Health Regulations. The implementation of these Regulations will strengthen reporting of disease outbreaks. And many nations are improving their laboratories, diagnostic capacity, and surveillance systems. We are supporting such efforts in more than 25 countries such as Pakistan and Kenya where they now have capacity to test samples for influenza virus resulting in a rapid local response. We will continue to support confirmation testing by the World Health Organization.

And we have improved our ability to respond rapidly and contain animal outbreaks. With outbreaks now in 51 nations, we have learned much about the value of planning and rapid reporting. We have assisted 34 nations in their response efforts by contributing supplies and equipment and we have supported the WHO and FAO teams with technical specialists to strengthen their rapid response efforts.  And we have benefited much from these experiences.

• In Thailand, we saw the value of openness and transparency through its extensive network of village health volunteers.
• In Vietnam, we saw the importance of quick and firm government action to change social behavior, close markets, and limit the spread of the virus.
• In Turkey, we saw how regional cooperation can minimize the broader impact of an animal outbreak.
• And in all these cases, the outbreaks among animals was successfully contained.

Since the first International Partnership meeting nine months ago there has been great progress, but much remains to be done. Resources are still inadequate or unavailable, notification of outbreaks and sharing of samples is sometimes delayed, and countries not yet unaffected by the virus may not be taking the threat as seriously. We must make progress on all of these fronts.

In January, donors pledged $1.9 billion for international efforts to address avian and pandemic influenza. The situation is fluid and international funding needs to reflect the changing situation. When those pledges were made, the virus was only found in 14 countries in Asia and now more than 50 countries on three continents are directly affected. Yet, as was noted yesterday by the World Bank, only 58% of those resources have been committed and 15% disbursed.

Access to these resources must be accelerated just as the spread of the virus has accelerated. Today, I am pleased to announce that the U.S. will contribute an additional $28 million to international efforts raising the U.S. contribution to $362 million dollars. But money is only part of the answer. Transparency is vital to prepare and respond successfully to outbreaks. Sharing of samples with UN organizations has enabled the world to track changes in the virus, information that is critical to vaccine development. With this knowledge, we are now refining the vaccine research approaches to be best prepared for a human pandemic. Animal vaccines can also be more accurately targeted.

For those cases where transportation of samples is a problem, the U.S. and other nations launched the transportation fund to facilitate safe transportation of samples within countries and internationally.

And although there has been progress on reporting animal outbreaks, that does not necessarily mean that reporting of possible human-to-human transmission will be similar. Leaders must continue to encourage their colleagues at home and abroad to be forthcoming with information critical to global response efforts. Providing accurate information to international partners can significantly limit both the human and economic impacts of an outbreak.

Finally, we have the opportunity to learn from other countries’ experiences before the virus reaches our borders. We can prepare our governments, both national and local, our business communities, and our citizens for what to expect and how to respond in the case of an outbreak. In the United States, for example, our Secretaries of Health and Agriculture and others have been touring the country speaking to state and local officials, businesses, the general public and the media. They have been explaining the roles each of these segments of society must play.

The United States sees these issues as the priority for this meeting of the International Partnership and for our work in the months ahead. We hope this meeting will:

• Galvanize donor commitment to making the resources we have pledged available to countries and international organizations to build veterinary capacity and public health infrastructure;
• Ensure national leaders remain focused on preparedness and communications -- both in those nations affected and, particularly, in those that have yet to have the virus cross their borders;
• Improve transparency and sample sharing; and finally
• Sustain global coordination of efforts to address this threat.

Avian influenza is a global problem that requires a global solution in order to protect our families, our communities, our nations, and the world. The U.S. delegation and I look forward to continuing to work closely and actively with each and everyone of you today and in the months ahead to better prepare, detect, and respond to the threat of avian and pandemic influenza. Thank you.