OCTOBER 2005
In this section:
Battle Widens as Avian Flu Spreads
Bush Tells U.N. to Fight Poverty
Agency Channels Foreign Aid for Hurricane Katrina
Victims
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AFGHAN ELECTION: An Afghan woman holds her identification card as she participates in
the country’s first free parliamentary election Sept. 18. Elections were peaceful, despite threats
by Taliban militants. More than 5,700 candidates competed for 249 seats in the lower house of
parliament and on 34 provincial councils that select delegates to the upper house. USAID support
included training for 34,000 candidates’ agents, training the Joint Electoral Management
Body, a conference for women candidates, and support for election monitors.
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Battle Widens as Avian Flu Spreads
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Villagers and domesticated ducks rest in a backyard
farm in Kampot Province, southern Cambodia, where the
country’s four confirmed human cases of H5N1 have
occurred since January 2005.
Ben Zinner, USAID |
As U.S. experts assist Southeast Asian countries hit by avian
flu—culling poultry and searching for a vaccine for human
flu victims—the disease spread in August to Russia, possibly
carried by migrating birds.
It is feared that the disease will soon be carried to Europe,
India, and Africa as well.
The human form of the disease has killed about half the
112 people it infected in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and
Indonesia since the disease was discovered in December 2003.
However, if and when the virus changes so it can be transmitted
from human to human, experts believe the lethality will fall
from half of those infected to only two or three percent of
those infected.
That way, the virus ensures it does not kill so many of
its hosts that it kills itself in the process. But even at
the lower death rate, up to 180 million deaths could occur
worldwide before adequate vaccines and medicines are developed
and distributed or humans develop resistance.
In May, President Bush signed a $25 million emergency bill
to fight the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu. Funds go for
surveillance to detect outbreaks of the disease, quick diagnosis,
containment of infected animals and humans, and clinical management
and care, said Dennis Carroll, a senior USAID expert with
the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition.
“We are also looking at preparing countries for a pandemic,”
said Carroll, who led a team of USAID and other U.S. government
experts to Asia to plan a strategy to battle the disease.
Carroll said that “forecasts predict from 5 million
to 180 million deaths” if the virus causing the disease
mutates into a form that can be spread easily from human to
human.
There is a strong likelihood the virus could combine with
other human flu viruses and then adapt the ability to spread
from person to person, he said.
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On an assessment mission in Kampot Province of southern
Cambodia, USAID’s Dr. Chantha Chak and Dr. Richard
Schieber of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
speak with the family of a woman who died from avian
influenza in January, 2005. She was the first of Cambodia’s
four confirmed human cases to date.
Ben Zinner, USAID |
USAID is using $10 million from the emergency appropriation
for an early warning system to help identify and contain infected
poultry. So far, 150 million birds have been killed, costing
Southeast Asia $10 billion in losses.
The remaining $15 million is being used by the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) to prepare a medical response
to human infections.
Additional funds support development of a human vaccine
at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where
150 volunteers are being tested.
While initial results were positive, it may take up to two
years before a vaccine is ready for world use, said Carroll.
Thailand, which had both birds and humans infected, has
carried out an effective campaign to educate the public on
how to identify the disease, Carroll said. But now the situation
is “evolving rapidly,” he said, referring to the
spread west into Russia, where infected poultry and humans
have been reported.
“We now are concerned, by looking at the migration
paths, the disease will go to the Indian subcontinent, the
Middle East, and Africa,” said Carroll.
In Holland, poultry farmers have been told to keep poultry
indoors to limit exposure to wild birds, which contaminate
water with their feces. However, in Asia, most poultry is
free to roam in farmers’ yards, making it difficult to
contain the illness.
The disease is most likely to spread from birds to people
in areas such as Asia, where the population is very dense
and people live in close contact with poultry, in their yards
or in live animal markets.
USAID is supporting vaccination of poultry that has already
begun in Vietnam, location of most of the human deaths.
Farmers are not reimbursed if they report infections and
their birds—and the birds of their neighbors—are
destroyed. As a result, farmers are reluctant to report sickness.
Therefore, USAID is working with agriculture companies to
possibly provide farmers with an inoculated chick for each
bird culled.
“A pandemic is possible if three conditions are in
place,” said Carroll.
“First, it must be a new disease against which humans
have no natural defense. Second, when it replicates in humans
there is a bad outcome, such as death. Third, it must have
efficient human-to-human transmission, like a normal flu virus.
“The consensus is that the question is not ‘if’
it will jump to number three, but ‘when,’”
he said.
To prevent contracting flu, avoid contact with poultry and
surfaces it has touched; thoroughly cook poultry and eggs;
and wash hands.
While the human avian flu vaccine is not yet ready for use,
antiviral medication such as Tamiflu may be effective against
the disease. But only 2.3 million doses are on hand now, and
about 10 million will be ready by September 2006.
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WATERFOWL FLYWAYS: Many waterbirds (ducks, geese, swans)
migrate between wetlands in the northern breeding areas
and southern non-breeding areas and, in doing so, regularly
cross the borders of two or more countries. The birds
can cover up to 1,000 miles per day.
WFP Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch (OSAP)
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Bush Tells U.N. to Fight Poverty
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President Bush addressing the United Nations General
Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City.
AP/World Wide Photos
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NEW YORK—President Bush told the 60th summit
of the U.N. General Assembly here that the world body must
fight poverty, alleviate suffering, and “work to spread
freedom.”
He thanked “more than 115 countries and nearly a dozen
international organizations” for offering Hurricane Katrina
assistance, which is being coordinated by USAID (see related
story on this page).
Bush’s speech leaned heavily on the importance of international
development to improve chances of peace. He said fighting
poverty, malaria, AIDS, and other diseases drains the reservoirs
of suffering in which despair turns into violent ideologies,
such as terrorism.
“The lesson is clear: There can be no safety in looking
away, or seeking the quiet life by ignoring the hardship and
oppression of others,” said Bush.
“We must help raise up the failing states and stagnant
societies that provide fertile ground for the terrorists….
We are committed to…cutting poverty and hunger in half,
ensuring that every boy and girl in the world has access to
primary education, and halting the spread of AIDS—all
by 2015,” he added.
Bush noted that the new U.S. Millennium Challenge Account
“increased U.S. aid for countries that govern justly,
invest in their people, and promote economic freedom.”
“Across Africa, we’re helping local health officials
expand AIDS testing facilities, train and support doctors
and nurses and counselors, and upgrade clinics and hospitals,”
he added, describing aspects of his $15 billion, five-year
Emergency Plan to fight AIDS.
“Working with our African partners, we have now delivered
lifesaving treatment to more than 230,000 people in sub-Sahara
Africa. We are ahead of schedule to meet an important objective:
providing HIV-AIDS treatment for nearly 2 million adults and
children in Africa.”
He also pledged more than $1.2 billion over five years to
cut the death rate from malaria in half in 15 heavily affected
African countries.
At a signing ceremony for an antimalaria declaration in
New York, held on the sidelines of the U.N. Summit, First
Lady Laura Bush said the U.S. initiative “will pay for
insecticide-treated nets, it will allow for indoor spraying
against mosquitoes, and it will provide effective new combination
drugs to treat malaria.”
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First Lady Laura Bush witnesses the signing of a declaration
to fight malaria in Angola, Tanzania, and Uganda. Other
witnesses include, left to right, American Red Cross
Chair Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, UNICEF Executive Director
Ann Veneman, Global Fund Executive Director Richard
Feachem, and World Health Organization Director-General
LEE Jong-wook. Seated, left to right: First Lady of
Tanzania Anne Mkapa, USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios,
and Ugandan Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Hope
Mwesigye.
Harry Edwards, USAID
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The president announced in his speech a new international
partnership on avian and pandemic influenza to control the
disease (see related article on page 1).
He also called on the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund to finalize an agreement made by the G8 industrial nations
recently in Scotland to cancel 100 percent of the debt of
the most heavily indebted nations. Bush cited the importance
of eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade as a vehicle
for nations to escape from poverty.
Democracy was another Bush theme that has been an important
part of USAID’s agenda in recent years, especially as
Agency programs for democracy and governance climbed in annual
value to $1.2 billion in 2005.
“In the last two years alone, tens of millions have
voted in free elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Lebanon
and the Palestinian territories, in Kyrgyzstan, in Ukraine,
and Georgia,” said Bush. “And as they claim their
freedom, they are inspiring millions more across the broader
Middle East. We must encourage their aspirations.”
The president pledged $10 million to the new U.N. Democracy
Fund, noting that “democracy is larger than holding a
fair election; it requires building the institutions that
sustain freedom.”
At another USAID event held during the U.N. summit, Administrator
Andrew S. Natsios announced that the Agency would work to
“break the cycle of famine” and build up African
agriculture as a means to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty,
and promote wealth. Joining representatives of Mozambique,
Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania, Natsios said USAID will
program approximately $200 million a year for the next five
years for the plan.
Agency Channels Foreign Aid for Hurricane Katrina Victims
USAID experts who traditionally work on disasters abroad
have been sent to deal with an American emergency—the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The Agency has established an operations center for foreign
offers of assistance to the half a million people from Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama whose homes were destroyed or flooded
in the Aug. 29 storm and the subsequent collapse of levees
in New Orleans.
“USAID experts are also working at the Department of
Homeland Security’s Emergency Center, drawing on their
experience in working disasters around the world,” said
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“We are doing everything we can to help those in need
here at home in America, and we are also working closely with
other governments to help them locate and assist their citizens,”
she told reporters at the State Department Sept. 2.
Foreign governments and overseas private organizations have
pledged more than $700 million in cash and other aid to storm
victims.
Relief supply planes have been landing in Little Rock, Ark.,
since Sept. 5, loaded with tents, water purification units,
kitchen units, and medical supplies donated by Britain, France,
Italy, Russia, China, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and
Israel. International organizations such as UNICEF, NATO,
and the European Union are also contributing.
The Netherlands, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, El Salvador,
Australia, and Turkey are also among the 120 nations that
have extended help. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were
some of the first law enforcement officers to arrive in devastated
areas to support police patrols; South Korea sent in two tons
of disposable diapers.
U.S. ambassador in residence at Tulane University, Joseph
Sullivan, who is coordinating aid from foreign donors out
of a State Department response center in Baton Rouge, said
at a press conference Sept. 10 that USAID is working with
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “to make
sure that the needs are identified clearly, that they’re
transmitted to foreign governments, the right type of assistance
comes, and is put to use quickly.”
Nearly 50 experts from the Agency’s Office of U.S.
Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the United Nations
are coordinating relief efforts with FEMA and the Department
of Defense from a Washington-based response management team.
Other USAID staff are working with the group from offices
in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas.
FEMA, the Red Cross, and other organizations are distributing
beds, blankets, first aid kits, baby food, tents, and rafts.
They are also dispatching rescue teams.
Vehicles from a USAID warehouse in Miami—stored there
in case of natural disasters in Latin America—have been
used to transport non-ambulatory evacuees and personal effects.
USAID has also provided the National Guard with latex gloves,
safety coveralls, masks, goggles, earplugs, first aid kits,
germicidal wipes, hand sanitizer, and water testing kits.
Foreign contributions range from $25,000 in cash from Sri
Lanka, itself a victim of the deadly earthquake and tsunami
last year, to $100 million in cash and $400 million in crude
oil from Kuwait.
Financial donations are going to nonprofit organizations,
including the Red Cross, or are being directed to a special
fund at the State Department or the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
Sullivan said an elderly Lithuanian woman “remembers
the assistance that the United States provided to her country…and
she has sent her life savings of 1,000 euros [about $1,290]
to assist people affected by the hurricane.”
“I’ve worked in the U.S. Foreign Service for 35
years,” Sullivan added. “So I’ve been part
of much of U.S. assistance to people who have been starving,
displaced, hungry. And I know that, when we provide that sort
of assistance, it’s very much appreciated now that things
have turned around and others are assisting us, and we are
very, very grateful for that.”
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