UK: World warned over killer flu pandemic

[Guest guest]

Sales of flu vaccine must be down! Time to roll out the scare tactics

again!

http://www.independent.co

uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/world-warned-over-killer-flu-p

ndemic-872809.html

World warned over killer flu pandemic

By Ben , Political Correspondent

Monday, 21 July 2008

The world is failing to guard against the inevitable spread of a devastating

flu pandemic which could kill 50 million people and wreak massive disruption

around the globe, the Government has warned.

In evidence to a House of Lords committee, ministers said that early warning

systems for spotting emerging diseases were " poorly co-ordinated " and lacked

" vision " and " clarity " . They said that more needed to be done to improve

detection and surveillance for potential pandemics and called for urgent

improvement in rapid-response strategies.

The Government's evidence appeared in a highly critical report from the

Lords Intergovernmental Organisations Committee, which attacked the World

Health Organisation (WHO) as " dysfunctional " and criticised the

international response to the threat of an outbreak of disease which could

sweep across the globe.

The Government said: " While there has not been a pandemic since 1968,

another one is inevitable. " Ministers said it would could kill between two

and 50 million people worldwide and that such an outbreak would leave up to

75,000 people dead in Britain and cause " massive " disruption.

Peers joined ministers calling for urgent action to build up early warning

systems across the Third World that can identify and neutralise outbreaks of

potentially deadly new strains of disease before they are swept across the

globe by modern trade and travel. Peers also called for new action to

monitor animal diseases, warning of the potentially disastrous effects of

conditions such as the H5N1 bird flu virus jumping to humans and demanded

that Britain step up funding for the WHO to tackle the threat.

With international tourist journeys now reaching 800 million a year, giving

unprecedented potential for epidemics to spread across borders, and many

cities rapidly growing in developing countries, which would provide " fertile

ground " to spread disease, peers on the committee warned that conditions

such as Sars, avian influenza and Ebola " have the potential to cause rapid

and devastating sickness and death across much of the world if they are not

detected and checked in time " .

Their report said: " We have been warned that an influenza pandemic is

overdue and that when – rather than if – it comes the effects could be

devastating, particularly if the strain of the virus should be of the H5N1

variety that has been seen in south-east Asia in recent years.

" While much progress has been made in the past 10 years in improving global

surveillance and response systems, much remains to be done if we are to

detect new strains of the virus and counter them before they have had the

chance to spread. "

The report called for a fundamental overhaul of the WHO's regional offices

around the world. " Given the threats to global health that we face from

newly emerging infectious diseases, a dysfunctional organisational structure

within the world's principal policy-making, standard-setting and

surveillance body simply cannot be afforded. "

A government briefing given to the committee warned: " Not all countries have

the resources or capacities to put in place a seasonal influenza vaccination

policy and, in the event of an influenza pandemic, it is also recognised

that current stock will not meet world-wide demand.

" There needs to be an improvement to rapid response strategies in poorer,

more vulnerable, countries. "

Ministers warned that there was " no agreed vision or clarity over roles "

among the international bodies working in the field.

Lord Soley, the committee's chairman, welcomed efforts to guard against a

flu pandemic but warned: " They are not good enough. We have a pandemic twice

every century. If something developed in a country with a developed

healthcare system you would stop it and stop it before it went round the

world. You cannot have that confidence about the developing world, " it

warned.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, likened the threat

from a pandemic to the threat of international terrorism. He said: " Globally

there has been massive attention to the threat from terrorism and rightly so

But the potential for loss of life from a pandemic is massive, enormous and

yet we stare a disaster in the face and we see a chaotic, uncoordinated and

incoherent international response to it.

" Disease can spread like wildfire. We have to dramatically step up the

response. "

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health acknowledged that " more clearly

needs to be done improve detection, surveillance and general response

capacity building " . She said Britain was working to improve the

international response to bird flu and a potential pandemic and was working

to improve international co-ordination on the issue.

She added: " We agree that there is considerable scope to improve the

effectiveness and coherence of intergovernmental organisations working in

this area. "