“International cooperation is the best and perhaps the only opportunity to effectively combat the threat of avian influenza“.
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Indonesians continue to trade poultry without concern |
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Health Paula Dobriansky emphasized at a conference held in Washington, attended by health officials from 80 countries and eight international organizations.
Never before has the world been so seriously concerned about the risk of a global avian influenza outbreak. Indeed, this concern is well-founded. According to warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO), when an outbreak occurs, the death toll could rise to 7.4 million people worldwide.
Therefore, at the conference, Asian countries were urged to be transparent about disease information and to cooperate more effectively with the global community to prevent outbreaks as soon as signs appear.
The initial announcements indicated that conference participants agreed on the fundamental principle of the outbreak prevention strategy: sharing truthful and prompt information when an outbreak occurs, so that countries can respond in a timely manner.
A plan to stockpile antiviral medications was also deemed necessary, and in this regard, wealthy countries need to support poorer nations in case of an outbreak.
On the same day, President George Bush met with pharmaceutical companies to discuss measures to produce vaccines more rapidly.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress was actively meeting to pass legislation related to avian influenza prevention efforts: the Bioshield II Act concerning the production of high-quality vaccines, and legislation on rapid response and preparedness to enhance domestic healthcare infrastructure and increase the national vaccine stockpile.
At the same time, during an extraordinary meeting in Strasbourg, lawmakers from 46 member countries of the Council of Europe unanimously agreed to establish a solidarity fund (as proposed by the European Commission) to finance vaccine and antiviral drug development projects in developing countries.
NGỌC DANH (According to Washington Post, Reuters)
