World's poor at huge risk from bird flu

ActionAid International, one of the UK's charity largest development charities which works with over five million of the world's poorest people, has warned that when it comes to the fight against bird flu, in the developing world, making plans is not enough.

According to the emergencies advisor for the charity Dr PV Unnikrishnan, in view of the potential high mortality figures, it is important to move beyond the current technical and medical ethos and place equal emphasis on people and not just the virus and it's carriers.

Unnikrishnan's comments come on the eve of a crucial UN meeting on bird flu; he warns that over 70 per cent of people live in rural communities alongside their bird and animal stocks, and earn their livelihood from subsistence farming.

He says endemic poverty, in Africa has been made worse by the AIDS epidemic, leaving the world's poorest under a huge risk.

Dr Unnikrishnan says that despite the recent outbreaks of bird flu in Nigeria, India and elsewhere, the world still has a window of opportunity, but that window is getting smaller every time a new country reports a fresh infection.

He says it is time to widen the planning process to match the urgency of the challenge as the poorest countries face an information blackout on bird flu as health authorities are yet to produce simple education materials.

He says the Geneva meeting must rectify this shortcoming.

ActionAid believes that a multi pronged approach is necessary in developing response strategies for bird flu in the developing world consisting of:

• The urgent dissemination of simple and practical information via mass public information campaigns.
  
• Internationally-funded generous compensation schemes to protect the poor, their livelihoods and their means of survival.
  
• In-country monitoring to prevent discrimination against groups on the margins of society, such as rural people, squatters and slum dwellers.
  
• Strengthened public health systems which make essential medicines accessible and affordable for the poor.

Dr Unnikrishnan says we live in a small world and if action is not taken quickly a human epidemic will occur.

The likelihood of that happening first in a poor community, in a developing country is high, yet the poorest are currently at the bottom of the list as far as global preparations are concerned.

Not only is this unjust, says Unnikrishnan, it is also foolish.