Europe help Asia fight deadly bird flu
Asia-Pacific leaders will pledge to cooperate in developing a vaccine against a possible bird flu-spawned pandemic, an official said, as the European Union’s health commissioner headed to Indonesia today to discuss ways to boost the country’s fight against the virus.
South Asian leaders, meanwhile, agreed to set up a health surveillance centre to combat the threat of a pandemic, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said.
Kim Jong-hoon, South Korea’s ambassador to the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, said yesterday that APEC leaders were expected to adopt agreements on information-sharing and other measures to boost preparedness and fight the virus later this week at a summit in Busan, South Korea.
APEC will organise a ministerial-level meeting on bird flu in the first half of next year, and consider a proposal to host an infectious diseases symposium in China, also in 2006, Kim said.
A draft statement said APEC foreign ministers would “call for further support to establish a regional stockpile of antiviral medication and to strengthen regional and international surveillance and response systems” against bird flu.
In Jakarta, the European Union’s commissioner for health and consumer protection, Markos Kyprianou, was to arrive for a two-day visit to strengthen Indonesia’s surveillance and control capabilities.
Indonesia is Kyprianou’s final stop in a tour of Southeast Asia. The country has resisted calls to slaughter healthy birds in infected areas – a practice recommended by the United Nations – because of the cost of compensating farmers and the millions of people who keep one or two birds in their backyards.
His visit comes as Indonesian health officials were investigating whether a 20-year-old woman who lived near a flock of sick chickens died from ird flu after falling ill with a high fever and breathing difficulties.
An Indonesian lab was conducting tests today to determine whether she had the disease, said Dr. Ilham Patu, a spokesman for Jakarta’s infectious diseases hospital.
Five people are confirmed to have died from bird flu in Indonesia this year.
