By Daisy Ayliffe - 17th January 2006
Avian influenza poses a greater global threat than any other animal disease in history, EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou will claim on Wednesday.
In an address to the International Ministerial Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza in Beijing, Kyprianou will urge countries to raise their game in the fight against bird flu.
“No one can predict when the next pandemic will occur, but only 10 mutations of the dangerous avian influenza virus are needed to change it into the human pandemic virus -seven mutations have already been observed in Asia,” the EU’s health chief is expected to warn delegates.
It is likely the EU executive will call on officials from around the world to address the animal disease at source because “prevention is better than cure”.
At least 148 human cases of H5N1, the deadliest strain of bird flu, have been confirmed in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Cambodia and Turkey, according to the WHO.
In Turkey, at least three people have died and 15 others infected by H5N1 in the last month, marking the virus’s westward progression from China and southeast Asia.
A two-day donors conference began in Beijing on Tuesday morning and is expected to produce pledges of $1.2-1.5 billion in bird-flu spending.
The EU is co-hosting the event along with the the World Bank and China.
It is expected the World Bank will administer the release of more than €1bn in zero-interest loans and grants.
“We're anticipating a very generous EU response, we have a very strong commitment from the US and we expect the Japanese to come with a strong commitment,” a World Bank spokesman explained.
On Tuesday the EU executive pledged €100m in aid for bird flu victims and a further €20m to help finance research into new methods of diagnosing and treating both the current avian flu and any future human flu virus that develops from it.
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