Australian State Unveils Plan to Fight Bird Flu
Date: 17-Nov-05
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Michael Perry
The New South Wales (NSW) health department said a bird flu pandemic, should it infect 30 percent of the state's population, would probably hospitalise up to 30,000 people and kill 12,500.
"We may not stop a pandemic from occurring but, with careful planning and preparation, we can be more effective in protecting people and reducing the impact on the health system," NSW state premier Morris Iemma said.
Australia, which boasts one of the world's toughest quarantine regimes, is free of bird flu. The highly contagious H5N1 strain of the virus is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, where it is known to have killed 64 people.
Most human cases have been blamed on contact with infected chickens. The H5N1 strain cannot pass easily between people, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that does, just like human influenza. If this happens, millions could die worldwide because they would have no immunity.
Australia has a national emergency plan in the event of a bird flu pandemic which would see border screening, hospitals cancelling elective surgery and discharging less serious patients to free up beds, and the recalling of medical staff on leave.
The national government has bought close to 4 million doses of anti-viral drugs -- one of the world's largest stockpiles on a per capita basis.
RISK STILL LOW
Iemma said a bird flu outbreak would have a major impact on Sydney, Australia's largest city, but reassured people not to panic as the risk of a pandemic was still low.
"We hope that we will never have to use this plan but we have to be prepared and we have to ensure that NSW is best protected," he said.
Under a three-year plan, the state government will prepare fever clinics, separate from hospital emergency departments, to assess people.
It will set up staging facilities to care for people that cannot be accommodated at home or in hospitals, and designate influenza hospitals best suited to handle cases.
"Staging facilities would be ... community centres, even perhaps school halls, where we could establish facilities to provide containment and services," Iemma told reporters in Sydney, adding sports fields could also be used.
NSW will also establish a biological unit in its health department and appoint biological pandemic officers in the ambulance service and in each health district in the state.
Australia will stage a national training exercise between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2 to test its readiness for avian flu.
"Australia has successfully eradicated five previous outbreaks of the less virulent H7 strain of avian influenza," said NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald.
The last outbreak of H7 was in 1997. In that case, 130,000 chickens died or were destroyed within a week, along with 30,000 chickens and emus at a nearby farm.
Macdonald said if avian flu was reported in NSW, all commercial birds affected would immediately be destroyed, movement restrictions would be imposed, and a 200-plus team of health officials and veterinarians would be sent to the area.
He said recently upgraded testing facilities in the state meant diagnostic results could be available within 30 minutes.
Macdonald said the risk of H5N1 entering Australia was low due to the country's geographic isolation and the fact that its ducks and geese, carriers of the disease, were not migratory.
($US1=A$1.37)
