Australia at risk from pandemics: experts

April 8, 2011

BY BIANCA HALL 05 Apr, 2011 04:00 AM

Public health specialists have warned Australia is drastically under-prepared

for influenza and other pandemics.

Experts meeting in Canberra yesterday said Australia was failing to monitor

outbreaks of communicable disease, including keeping figures on the number of

flu-related deaths across the country.

Heath , of the n Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory, said the

Federal Government's decision to axe an Australian National University program

was particularly galling.

He believed slashing $1.9million from the ANU program, credited with monitoring

and controlling pandemic diseases including H1N1 (the so-called ''swine flu''

virus) and severe acute respiratory syndrome, would worsen the country's

capacity to respond to outbreaks.

The Commonwealth-funded program recruited outstanding students from the Master

of Applied Epidemiology course to work as a set of mobile teams, which monitor,

prevent and control the outbreak of dangerous communicable diseases.

The funding cuts will force the program's closure at the end of this year.

''The pandemic's gone, the emergency's gone, so they think we don't need it any

more but a lot of us think that's short-sighted because if the pandemic returns

we have to build the system up again,'' Professor said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Ageing said the Government

acknowledged the ''important contribution'' the ANU program had made, but it was

''but one course among many now available in Australia''.

''Public health education, research and training in Australia now has an

international profile and Australia has a strong leadership role in the

Asia-Pacific region ...

''Australian institutions are now in a position to seek funding within the

normal competitive tertiary education environment and the special subsidy for

masters of public health courses is no longer justified.''

The last Australian pandemic occured in 2009, when 37,562 confirmed swine flu

cases and 191 deaths were recorded...

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