United States Contributes $320 Million to Global Avian Flu Fight

27 October 2008 By Cheryl Pellerin Staff Writer

Highly pathogenic H5N1 now well established in six nations

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — Against a backdrop of palms and craggy mountains along the Red Sea, the U.S. government announced at the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza it would pledge $320 million to help pay for global efforts to fight avian influenza and prepare people everywhere to face a future pandemic.

The contribution will bring to $949 million the total amount the United States has given since January 2006 to support international efforts in more than 100 nations to improve pandemic preparedness and communication, disease surveillance and detection, and outbreak response and containment.

“Let me assure you that the United States continues its focus on the threat we all face,” Paula Dobriansky, under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs and head of the U.S. delegation, told the gathered attendees October 25. “It is in that light that I am pleased to let you know now what our delegation will announce officially during the pledging session on Sunday [October 26] — that the United States is pledging an additional $320 million in international assistance for avian and pandemic influenza.”

U.S. Contribution

The pledge encompasses activities by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of State. International assistance will be targeted as follows:

• $94 million to support lead international organizations — including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Development Programme — for capacity- building and avian and pandemic flu preparedness activities.
• $86 million to support ongoing bilateral activities in 48 countries.
• $83 million to address the evolving nature of the avian flu threat in the event of a global contingency.
• $57 million for international flu research, ongoing support to regional sites of the Global Disease Detection network, and international coordination.

The U.S. delegation at the conference includes senior officials from the departments of State, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Defense, and USAID.

Into Action

The ministerial —– a collaboration among the Egyptian government, the European Union and the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, with support from the United States, the European Commission and the United Nations — is the sixth such international meeting since 2005. Egypt to Host Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza

In that time, hundreds of millions of domestic birds have died of deadly avian influenza, known as H5N1, or been killed to prevent its spread in 63 countries; in 15 countries, 387 people have been infected and 245 have died. Worldwide efforts to control the devastation have helped more than 50 countries eliminate H5N1.

In six countries — Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam — H5N1 has become endemic.

But an analysis of the situation worldwide between January and June — in the Fourth Global Progress Report on Responses to Avian Influenza and State of Pandemic Readiness, released in October by the U.N. influenza coordinator and the World Bank — says there were fewer outbreaks and fewer infected countries compared to the same period in 2006 and 2007, and no countries have reported first-time poultry infections so far in 2008.

The decrease in poultry outbreaks and human cases and dwindling interest in H5N1 in the press has experts worried that the public will forget how dangerous even a few cases of H5N1 can be to animals and people.

“The virus has been shown to be capable of infecting a variety of birds, over 50 species, and over 10 species of mammals, including human beings,” said Dr. Ilaria Capua, head of the Virology Department at the Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie in Legnaro, Italy. “However, for every human being that is infected, at least 1 million animals are infected. And major changes that occur in the virus’s … genome occur in animals.”

If the virus mutates to become easily transmissible from person to person, a pandemic could sweep the planet.

“While popular perception of the risk of a pandemic has declined,” said World Bank Vice President Jeffrey Gutman, “the reality is stark and deeply concerning. WHO confirms that the risk of an influenza pandemic remains as great as it was in 2005.”

“We are dealing with a very clever and smart virus,” said WHO Deputy Director-General Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah. “It will not attack us when we are alert and when we are strong, it will attack us in our moment of weakness. It will attack us when we are complacent. It will strike when we begin to complain that avian flu is taking too much of our time, our energy and our attention.”

Milestones

Attendees at the December 2007 New Delhi International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza prepared a road map with simple milestones countries could use to be as ready as possible by the end of 2008 to contain and mitigate a flu pandemic.

“In the road map, countries were encouraged to prepare operational plans as a key to an effective response,” said U.N. influenza coordinator Dr. David Nabarro.

Most countries have prepared reports, he said, but many countries still have not tested their pandemic preparedness plans, established adequate disease surveillance capacity or planned for the continuity of essential services in the event of a pandemic.

“The world as a whole has not fully realized the ambitious objectives that have been developed through the last three years of international conferences and that are set out in the New Delhi road map,” Nabarro said. “But we are on the way and we have a chance to help each other move onward and upward.”

For more information about the U.S. pledge, see “Statement on U.S. Assistance for Avian, Pandemic Influenza.”

More information about the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza is available on the meeting Web site.