Namibia health authorities not worried about deadly bird flu

AMIDST continent-wide concern that a lethal strain of bird flu might reach Africa by December, the Namibian medical fraternity says it is not at all worried about its possible impact on the country.

The virus causing the disease normally only affects birds and occasionally pigs, but the H5N1 strain has been seen to cross the species barrier to infect people. Fears are mounting of a catastrophic pandemic if the lethal bird flu virus combines with human varieties of flu and undergoes a mutation allowing it to jump from human to human.Around 60 people in South East Asia have died after falling ill with bird flu and the virus has recently been reported in Europe.European scientists confirmed that sick birds in Turkey had fallen ill with the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus, with tests still underway in Romania.”We are aware of avian flu,” Health and Social Services Ministry Permanent Secretary Kalumbi Shangula told The Namibian yesterday.”But there hasn’t been a single case reported in the whole of Africa.We are always monitoring the situation,” he said.Shangula said he didn’t believe the virus was a cause of concern for Namibia.Medical practitioners contacted agreed that the virus was too far away to cause panic.”I don’t think there’s any immediate threat to Namibia for two reasons,” said Dr Bernard Haufiku, a general practitioner in Windhoek.”Asia is far from Namibia, and there’s no real import and export going on between Namibia and Asia.I’m confident that they should be able to contain it, and Europe is helping them contain it,” he said.The coming arrival in Africa of millions of migratory birds from Europe, where winter is fast approaching, has led to dire warnings from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that the virus may reach the continent by December.If it does, the east African Rift Valley countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania will be particularly threatened, according to the FAO, which last month organised a conference in Nairobi to alert the region to the danger.Should the virus spread to Africa, it is predicted it will have a devastating effect on a continent already facing severe hunger and suppressed immune systems, according to the African Union’s Nairobi-based Bureau of Inter-African Animal Resources (BIAR).Duncan Mwangi, an immunologist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, said cash-strapped governments in Africa lack the resources, trained veterinary staff, crisis-management expertise and, in some cases, political will, to act quickly and effectively.”If Europe, which has many means to stop the bird flu, wasn’t able to prevent it, what will happen to us in Africa?” said one BIAR official.”Things spread fast,” BIAR director Mordibo Traore told AFP.”Just a month ago, one wouldn’t have thought the disease would arrive so quickly in Europe.”Although direct contact with infected poultry is considered the main route of human infection, scientists are concerned that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads from person to person.If this happens, scientists say millions of people could die worldwide.The South African Department of Health has already committed itself to working alongside the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other countries in exploring ways to deal with a possible outbreak of the deadly flu.According to international news reports, a recent strain of the virus, H2N2 was detected in August 2004 in the Eastern Cape, but it was successfully contained.No cases of the H5N1 strain have been reported in South Africa.Fears are mounting of a catastrophic pandemic if the lethal bird flu virus combines with human varieties of flu and undergoes a mutation allowing it to jump from human to human.Around 60 people in South East Asia have died after falling ill with bird flu and the virus has recently been reported in Europe.European scientists confirmed that sick birds in Turkey had fallen ill with the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus, with tests still underway in Romania.”We are aware of avian flu,” Health and Social Services Ministry Permanent Secretary Kalumbi Shangula told The Namibian yesterday.”But there hasn’t been a single case reported in the whole of Africa.We are always monitoring the situation,” he said.Shangula said he didn’t believe the virus was a cause of concern for Namibia.Medical practitioners contacted agreed that the virus was too far away to cause panic. “I don’t think there’s any immediate threat to Namibia for two reasons,” said Dr Bernard Haufiku, a general practitioner in Windhoek.”Asia is far from Namibia, and there’s no real import and export going on between Namibia and Asia.I’m confident that they should be able to contain it, and Europe is helping them contain it,” he said.The coming arrival in Africa of millions of migratory birds from Europe, where winter is fast approaching, has led to dire warnings from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that the virus may reach the continent by December.If it does, the east African Rift Valley countries of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania will be particularly threatened, according to the FAO, which last month organised a conference in Nairobi to alert the region to the danger.Should the virus spread to Africa, it is predicted it will have a devastating effect on a continent already facing severe hunger and suppressed immune systems, according to the African Union’s Nairobi-based Bureau of Inter-African Animal Resources (BIAR).Duncan Mwangi, an immunologist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, said cash-strapped governments in Africa lack the resources, trained veterinary staff, crisis-management expertise and, in some cases, political will, to act quickly and effectively.”If Europe, which has many means to stop the bird flu, wasn’t able to prevent it, what will happen to us in Africa?” said one BIAR official.”Things spread fast,” BIAR director Mordibo Traore told AFP.”Just a month ago, one wouldn’t have thought the disease would arrive so quickly in Europe.”Although direct contact with infected poultry is considered the main route of human infection, scientists are concerned that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads from person to person.If this happens, scientists say millions of people could die worldwide.The South African Department of Health has already committed itself to working alongside the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other countries in exploring ways to deal with a possible outbreak of the deadly flu.According to international news reports, a recent strain of the virus, H2N2 was detected in August 2004 in the Eastern Cape, but it was successfully contained.No cases of the H5N1 strain have been reported in South Africa.