Bird Flu Center

Cuban authorities are preparing a vast security system meant to quickly detect avian influneza, as the disease is expected to appear on the American continent after ravaging Southeast Asia. Authorities are reported to have invested several million dolars in the program to detect and control a possible outbreak of the disease in birds as well as humans. Officials say that the rely on the country’s highly qualified health personnel to keep the situation well under control.

A Canadian program aiming to discover any traces of the bird flu virus that may have arrived in the country via migratory birds is under way but has so far found no reason for concern. A quarter of the planned 12,000 birds have been tested to date, but no avian influenza viruses have been isolated, as one high ranking official of the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health centre declared in an interview. A similar nationwide program in the United States has also failed to spot any highly pathogenic flu virus and this is giving the experts a hint that migratory birds  might be an unlikely way of the disease entering North America. Although some avian flu viruses are traced on birds, none is of the H5 or H7 subtypes, the ones causing high mortality among birds and. Mild, low pathogenic forms have been found in birds for years, but without any reason for concern for the public. This conclusion is soon to be published in an article by two scientists, that have analyzed the possibilities of the disease being introduced into the country. Their opinion is that diseased birds imported either legally or illegally are the most likely source of infection for North American poultry, more likely than migratory birds or birds from Asia or Africa blown off course by storms.

America has not yet appeared on the bird flu map, however, or maybe because of that, countries in this region are on high alert and trying to keep the situation this way. Third world living environments are to be found here as well, with countries such as Brazil having a large percentage of the population living very closely packed housings at the outskirts of big cities. Poultry is one of the cheapest and easiest means of subsistence, and it is most often raised in poor hygienic conditions. Thus, if a virus were to appear here, the risk of it infecting many households in a large area, in a short period of time, is very high.

Countries are developing programs and setting up emergency plans for the event when the unwanted event will take place. As the most likely entry route of the virus, via Alaska, is being secured by the United States, Central and South American countries are turning their attention on maritime routes and attempting to provide strict control measures in points of entry into their country.

A workshop held by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) along with the Caribbean Poultry Association and the departments of health and agriculture has aimed at training people in Jamaica on how to identify and deal with the highly pathogenic form of the avian flu. The impending threat of the disease and the great potential it holds for a massive casualties toll has determined local authorities to draw up a plan for dealing with the situation. $13.5 million have been approved by the Cabinet, to go towards the strengthening of the surveillance task force and laboratory capacities within the Veterinary Service.

The Health authorities are trying to put Jamaica on the map featuring only about 50 countries that have set up a comprehensive plan for preparing for the predicted flu pandemic. According to Caribbean officials, the 3,800 manned beds in hospitals islandwide would be sufficient in the case of a bird flu epidemic. The estimates instead point to approximately 6,500 hospitalisations needed and probably more than one thousand deaths. Also, it is worrying that only 19 of the country’s 27 intensive care unit beds are manned by trained staff. In the case of a pandemic, at least 500 ICU beds will be needed after the first three weeks alone.

Following recommendations from the World Health Organization, Bolivia will update its security measures in all airports in the country, in an attempt to combat possible bird flu outbreaks. Starting June a general contingency plan will take effect, as the Bolivian Health Ministry declared. The highly pathogenic form of the virus (H5N1) has seen no occurrences in the country so far, but authorities invoke prevention as the best measure against the disease, as the human death toll of the disease world wide has risen fast.

The Barbados Ministry of Health and the Pan-American Barbados Health Organization are sponsoring a plan to secure the ports of entry, to prevent the spread of bird flu into the country. After The Caribbean Epidemiology Center stated that regional countries may not be able to prevent the entry of the killer virus, a consultation on the issue was held at the Sherbourne Center.

Barbados Chief Medical Officer, Dr Joy St John, says the measures that will be put in place will tackle the problem head on. A plan concerning agriculture and the health sector is in place, but apparently the area will be spread to cover all sectors that could come under threat from bird flu. Also, doses of vaccine have been ordered to fuel the stock for an eventual epidemic.

Although influenza experts say the Caribbean is at relatively low risk for avian flu, officials have released a projection of how the region would be affected in the worst-case scenario.

One estimate from the Pan American Health Organization theorized that over 515 million workdays could be lost if a moderate pandemic were to hit the region.

A severe pandemic, it was reported, could increase that number to almost 730 million and the direct costs for this lost time could be $15 billion in the former case, or $21 billion in the latter.

Officials reported that the region is at low risk since birds flying south from the U.S. are not believed to be intermingling with birds heading to American from Siberia, where one of the latest outbreaks occurred.

To date, eight countries in the region—Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico—either have completed NIPPPs or written drafts, plus the English-speaking Caribbean countries have drafted a subregional plan. Eleven others are currently developing their plans, including Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In The Bahamas, Department of Public Health officials have already announced that they will begin a national campaign to increase influenza vaccinations.

The shots will be administered at all public health clinics, with the campaign designed to decrease the impact of seasonal influenza and any further complications from it.

Officials say the elderly and young children are mostly at risk for contracting influenza, including premature babies and children with sickle cell disease. Asthmatics, pregnant women and persons who suffer from chronic conditions like lung disease are also at a higher risk of contracting the flu.

The Bahamas Department of Agriculture has restricted poultry imports from countries where Bird Flu has been reported.

As the world takes prudent measures to prepare for a major human influenza pandemic, the Food and Agricultural Organization has urged “more decisive action by affected countries, civil society, the private sector and the international community to stop bird flu in animals.

More than 300 animal and human health experts, senior policy-makers, economists and industry representatives are gathering in Geneva last year to design a strategy to eliminate the virus in animals and prepare for a possible human influenza pandemic.

Monday, March 6, 2006

MIAMI, USA (AFP): Bahamian authorities said Friday they were unable to determine with certainty what caused a spate of bird deaths, but have dismissed fears the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus had reached the Americas.

“All the carcasses were in an advanced state of decomposition, therefore no definite diagnosis could be made and no useful samples of internal organs could be recovered for testing,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

“Physical evidence indicated that the likely cause of death may have been due to trauma,” the statement said, adding that there were reports of duck hunting in the Inagua National Park where the 10 dead birds were found.

Bahamian authorities earlier dismissed suggestions the birds, including several flamingos, died of bird flu.

“Veterinary experts indicate that the presence of the deadly H5N1 would have decimated the large flock of flamingos and other birds on that island,” the ministry said earlier this week.

The ministry pointed out that other countries in the region have had similar scares, but that it turned out the birds died of other causes.

To date, the Western Hemisphere has had no confirmed case of H5N1 bird flu, which has spread from Asia to Europe, Africa and parts of the Middle East, killing more than 90 people since it surfaced in 2003.

The dead birds were found in a wildlife reserve on the southern Bahamas island of Great Inagua, which has a population of about 50,000 flamingos and a large lake popular with migrating birds.

The statement said no new incidents of bird deaths have been reported since on Inagua, but said the ministry “will continue to investigate all reports of unexplained bird mortality throughout the Bahamas.”

A team of experts was sent to the island earlier this week to investigate the bird deaths and collect samples. Authorities have expressed concern over the international attention given to the bird flu scare.

“Remember, the Bahamas is a tourism centre that attracts some five million tourists a year,” Agriculture Minister Leslie Miller told the Bahama Journal. “Luckily for us no outbreak has taken place,” he added.

Miller said reports of the suspicious bird deaths had caused a downturn in the stock of Kerzner International, which manages tourist resorts in the Bahamas.

Great Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas chain is located 60 miles from Cuba and Haiti, and 530 miles from the United States.

BAHAMAS: March 1, 2006

NASSAU - Health experts were dispatched on Tuesday to the southern Bahamas island of Inagua to find out if an unexplained spate of bird deaths was linked to a deadly bird flu virus that is spreading around the globe.
Over the past two days, 15 of the island’s famed flamingos, five roseate spoonbills and one cormorant have been found dead with no external injuries on the island just north of Haiti, officials said.

Scientists from the Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Environmental Health will gather samples from the birds and then submit them for laboratory analysis.

“Anything is possible in nature. You have birds that fly around the world,” said Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Leslie Miller, declining to rule out the H5N1 bird flu strain that has killed at least 93 people and spread to 20 new countries in the past month alone.

“But let’s hope to God that that is not the case here in the Bahamas,” Miller said.

The H5N1 virus is endemic in birds across parts of Asia but has since spread to Europe and Africa. Experts fear it could mutate into a form more easily passed between humans and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die.

Bahamas National Trust president Glenn Bannister said he had never known such a large number of bird deaths in the Bahamas at one time.

“This is a very large number of birds to be found dead at Inagua. This is highly unusual,” he said.

Inagua is the second largest breeding ground for flamingos outside of Africa.

Although the three species affected on the island are not migratory birds, Bannister said they come into contact with geese and ducks that migrate to Inagua during the winter.

“Migrating birds are in Inagua all the time,” he said. “Every winter they mix right in with the other birds in the ponds. If this is West Nile or bird flu, it will not be good for our bird population.”

Inagua is the southernmost island of the Bahamas chain, lying about 60 miles (100 km) from the northern coast of Haiti. It is a large sparsely populated island known primarily for sea salt production.