Asia: 102 million USD for the fight against bird flu

A senior UN official today said the cost of fighting the spread of bird flu in Southeast Asian countries over the next 2-3 years will amount to 102 million USD.

'If the disease spreads from eastern Europe to Africa, we will need an additional $ 75 million for an emergency,' said Subhash Morvaria, an official with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Bangkok. He urged countries to fight avian influenza as a key measure to prevent bird flu from becoming a form of human influenza virus that could cause a pandemic globally.

'When the disease still occurs in domestic poultry, it is still a threat to humans. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on fighting animal diseases', he said.

This morning, Larry Granger, a US Department of Agriculture official, also said that Pacific nations should work together to fight bird flu and may have to fight a pandemic of human flu. 'Every country should take measures to deal with bird flu and need to work together to fight the flu. We cannot just focus on human health and the consequences of pandemic influenza without considering its impact on animal health and migratory birds, who can make pandemics happen " , he said.

Also today, Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, called on people to remain calm at the rising concerns about the spread of bird flu. 'We should not panic at this time and we should not overstate the risk of disease', he said before starting to attend the meeting with officials from the 21 member countries of the economic cooperation forum. Asia Pacific.

Vietnam and Cambodia, both countries have cases of deaths from bird flu, today asked countries for technical and financial assistance in the fight against bird flu.

T.VY (General)