November 9 Flu Update
Reuters says WHO develops a bird flu plan in Geneva, while another death in Indonesia has been confirmed--much evidence of exposure to birds, but none to sick birds.Experts in Geneva say that fighting the flu could cost $1.5B over five years, exclusive of drug costs.
WHO is ready to run a test of its bird flu plans.
WHO says 7 million may die in pandemic.
(As an aside, Vietnam fears it could lose 800,000 in its country alone, in the continuing game of chasing estimates. Via Crofsblogs.)
CNN notes, probably with some accuracy, that surveillance is the plan's weakest link.
CIDRAP on US calls for a panel of experts to analyze and examine the plan.
Here's the WHO page on the meeting, with links to presentations.
Here's the official WHO release of the Geneva meeting.
Control at Source in Birds
- Improving veterinary services, emergency preparedness plans and control campaigns including culling, vaccination and compensation.
- Assisting countries to control avian influenza in animal populations.
Surveillance
- Strengthening early detection and rapid response systems for animal and human influenza.
- Building and strengthening laboratory capacity.
Rapid Containment
- Support and training for the investigation of animal and human cases and clusters, and planning and testing rapid containment activities.
Pandemic Preparedness
- Building and testing national pandemic preparedness plans, conducting a global pandemic response exercise, strengthening the capacity of health systems, training clinicians and health managers.
Integrated Country Plans
- Developing integrated national plans across all sectors to provide the basis for coordinated technical and financial support.
Communications
<>To support all of the above, factual and transparent communications, in particular risk communication, is vital.
Reuters on the death of the teenage girl in Indonesia.
Official WHO report on a new case in Vietnam.
CIDRAP on the latest from Vietnam and Indonesia.
ProMed on the latest from Vietnam and Indonesia.
China is continuing its transparency, saying the Liaoning is a potential disaster.
PETA says that if only we didn't eat meat, we wouldn't have all these chicken farms, and then we wouldn't have breeding of bird flu....
Thailand is set to urge APEC to jointly stockpile antivirals.
The US is going to test boosting vaccines with adjuvants.
Vietnam is set to roll out human vaccine trials early next year.
Helen Branswell on Roche saying that there is no reason to break patents, that it will do everything it can to meet supply needs.
The Roche quotes came as part of a daylong briefing in which Roche walked reporters through the manufacturing process for Tamiflu. Much discussion here on Star Anise.
Effect Measure reports on research on a "flu chip" being done in Colorado, and that it should be in the public domain.
ProMed on a couple different topics, including some discomfort at identifying migratory birds in a specific area.
Here's more on a story we had a couple of days ago the KFC is preparing to make sure people know you can't catch bird flu from a fried chicken.
posted by Orange @ 10:24 PM
2 Comments:
Why is WHO confident that we'll see a mild pandemic of the 57/68 mold and not a more deadly strain?
That's a valid question. I understand that you have to pick a number, and given the unknowns, its not a science. I'm not sure they are confident that it will be the 57/68 mold, but given that, why wouldn't you plan for 1918?
Post a Comment
<< Home