News today

Avian flu - 'yesterday panic, today forgotten'


In Short:

The current "nothing's going to happen" attitude vis-à-vis the potential of a bird-flu pandemic is "completely unacceptable", argues the president of the European Health Forum Gastein.

RELATED

* Avian influenza

Brief News:

A new study on bird-flu pandemic preparedness, conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, criticises the lack of co-ordination between human medical and veterinary measures and argues that international co-operation on pandemic preparedness is "often mere lip-service" and therefore can not function in an emergency situation.

In addition, the study's findings show that many countries still lack appropriate national strategies for containing potential pandemics, as they think that pandemic dangers only come from abroad. Furthermore, countries have vaguely formulated crisis plans, which often don't cover issues such as supply of vaccines or fast provision of laboratory capacities for testing and developing new medicines.

"Yesterday panic, today forgotten," comments Günther Leiner, the President of the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) the study's findings in the EHFG press release on 19 September 2006. "As a whole, the result of the much-heralded creation of modern, efficient and resilient structures for battling pandemics in Europe is not at all inspiring." One year after the 'first' bird-flu crisis, there is no real improvement in EU pandemic prevention, argues EHFG. The results of the study will presented in detail at the European Health Forum Gastein on 4-7 October 2006.

The EHFG will hold a special session on the issue of Facing the threat of modern pandemics to discuss what Europe is facing and to highlight the fact that communicable diseases remain a significant threat to public health.

Links