Health officials prepare for avian flu
It has been a while since we’ve heard about the disease called bird flu, but in this case out of sight, does not mean out of mind. This week the Ministry of Health is preparing its staff…should in case.
Dr. Gary Longsworth, Consultant, Avian Influenza Project
“What we are looking at right now is a window of opportunity to prepare because once it happens it will be too late to do anything about it. You have to prepare now.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
For years health officials have warned us that it’s not a matter of “if” avian influenza will impact Belize, it’s simply “when” will the deadly virus reach our shores. Carried by birds, to date this disease has been responsible for millions of dollars in economic loss due to animal deaths. But most disturbingly, more than two hundred people on the African and Asian continent have also died.
Dr. Gary Longsworth
“What we are worried about is that it will undergo a major shift in its capability where it will start to become extremely efficient at moving from human to human and that will set the stage, that will be start of the real pandemic.
Janelle Chanona
“And with deadly consequences…”
Dr. Gary Longsworth
“Of course because this is a virus with a high fatality rate. This virus to date has shown a fatality rate in humans of fifty-three percent so more than half the people who have gotten infected so far have died.”
With that reality in mind, the Ministry of Health has been holding a series of “sensitization” meetings to make sure that when it’s time for a national response all their employees are on the same page.
Dr. Gary Longsworth
“The outbreak is going to happen somewhere in a district, somewhere in a region of the country. It’s not going to happen in the Ministry of Health corridors so we need those people out on the periphery, the people on the ground to be able to respond to it.”
The official reaction to the pandemic will include infection control, clinical management of patients, quarantine and other public health measures. And because the disease is dynamic, doctors will only able to create a vaccine six months after the virus shows itself.
Dr. Gary Longsworth
“And even when a vaccine becomes available, if there’s a worldwide pandemic, we are way down the line in terms of priority. The bigger countries will snap up the vaccines first and the worldwide capacity for vaccine production is already limited so a vaccine is not the answer for us. We have to go back on our time proven methods of fighting outbreaks.”
And undoubtedly, any containment strategy will need full support on a national scale from the Government, the private sector and the general public.
Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
