- (CIDRAP News) The spread of avian flu
to the United States probably would not have the same impact it has had
in less developed countries, according to the US government's top infectious-disease
official.
-
- "The surveillance is going to be
so intense that it is very unlikely that there is going to be the type
of situation we see everywhere from Nigeria to Indonesia," said Dr.
Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID), as quoted in an Associated Press (AP) story today.
-
- American poultry farmers keep birds isolated,
reducing the potential for them to have contact with wild birds, Fauci
said. In addition, Americans generally have less contact with poultry or
their droppings. Backyard poultry is far less common in the United States
than in many of the countries battling avian flu, such as Indonesia.
-
- Fauci likened the US poultry system's
security to that in Europe. In Western Europe, H5N1-positive wild birds
have been found in multiple countries over several months, but the virus
has struck only a couple of poultry farms"one in France and one Germany.
-
- In the United States, Fauci told the
AP, "It won't be what you see in countries in which there is no regulation,
in which there is no incentive to compensate farmers, in which the people,
who are so poor, when they see their chickens are getting infected they
immediately sell them or they don't tell anybody because they don't want
them culled."
-
- American authorities recently unveiled
a surveillance plan that includes systematic monitoring of wild birds.
They expect to collect 75,000 to 100,000 samples for testing this year,
mostly on the West Coast and in Alaska.
-
- Fauci also said the avian flu virus is
not likely to change very quickly into a form that it can spread quickly
from person to person, potentially sparking a pandemic, according to the
AP. Acquiring this ability will require a series of genetic changes, which
could make the virus less virulent, he said.
-
- "It is entirely conceivable that
this virus is inherently programmed that it will never be able to go efficiently
from human to human," Fauci was quoted as saying. "Hopefully
the epidemic (in birds) will burn itself out, which epidemics do, before
the virus evolves the capability of being more efficient in going from
human to human."
-
- Nevertheless, Fauci advocated personal
preparedness, suggesting that people stock up on canned food and water,
as they would for a hurricane or other storm, the AP reported.
-
- http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza
/avianflu/news/apr1206fauci.html
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases"
message board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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