Vietnam asks donors to help battle bird flu
HANOI - Vietnam presented donor nations an emergency six-month plan to battle bird flu, amid fears of a new outbreak of the deadly disease and delays in a poultry vaccination scheme.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked donors to fund a raft of new measures to defend against the lethal H5N1 virus, as scientists fear a fresh outbreak in both poultry and humans as winter approaches.
Three UN agencies helped draft the emergency plan -- the UN Development Program (UNDP), the
World Health Organization (WHO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"We acknowledged the seriousness of the disease, not only in Vietnam but also in the region and in the world," Dung told donors.
Vietnam needs about five million dollars, according to WHO's country representative Hans Troedsson.
"It is not comprehensive support for everything. We obviously won't fix avian influenza in Vietnam with five million US dollars," he said.
But Vietnam desperately needs the six-month plan to ward off the disease. As one of the countries hardest-hit by bird flu, experts fear the situation in Vietnam could spark a global pandemic.
The disease decimated Vietnam's poultry stocks during the last two winters, and killed 44 people -- representing two-thirds of the world's known victims since the H5N1 virus emerged in December 2003.
The threat is again growing with the approach of winter, which each year has brought new outbreaks.
"We have a window of about two months. We need (this money) now before starting to see new cases in December and January," Troedsson said.
The plan covers both human and animal health, including support for poultry vaccinations and monitoring after the inoculations, boosting public awareness, improving Vietnam's laboratories, and reinforcing measures to detect new cases.
Faced with warnings that the bird flu virus could mutate into a form that could kill millions of people, the United States and European nations have taken a far greater interest in combatting the disease than in past years.
Whether that concern translates into dollars remains to be seen.
"There is much more commitment now. But there is a bit of a tendency to invest only in meetings. We need to take action on the ground, we need financial resources to reach the country," Troedsson said.
Vietnam has already launched a campaign to vaccinate tens of millions of birds, in 48 of its 64 provinces. The sheer scale of that effort has proved a tough test for the country's administrative and veterinary services.
Local press have reported on delays in the program, allegedly because of late deliveries of Chinese vaccines.
"However, I assure that we will complete the vaccination before the end of November," Bui Quang Anh, head of the agriculture ministry's animal health department, told AFP.
"There are central provinces that are very far behind," said Astrid Tripodi, who is leading the FAO's effort to fight bird flu. "And there are also problems with equipment."
Agence France Presse - October 12, 2005.
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