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| Human flu preparation would cost billions |
| 2005-10-23 |
| The global community will need to spend at least âseveral hundred million dollarsâ to prepare for a human flu pandemic in the months ahead, a senior World Health Organisation official said on Friday. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mike Ryan, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic alert and response, said substantial investments would be required. Preparing the world fully for the potential pandemic with large-scale production of vaccines and other measures would cost âbillionsâ, he said. Mr Ryan's comments come before a meeting in Geneva on November 7-9 of the WHO, World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health, that will gather 300 experts and political figures to decide how to respond to the threat. The meeting is the most wide-ranging on preparations and comes as the spread of avian flu from Asia to Europe has alerted the world to the risk of a variant of the virus mutating into a form lethal to humans. Sixty people have been confirmed dead from the H5N1 virus. But experts say it is only a matter of time before a pandemic based on the current strain or a different one emerges, which could kill millions and cause widespread economic disruption. Mr Ryan, who co-ordinated the WHO's response to the Sars outbreak, said funding would be required simply to develop effective national pandemic plans and systems to monitor human and animal health. |
| Posted by:lotp |