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Lab network proposed to avert bird flu pandemic
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-02 15:12
A global network of laboratories modeled on existing US military facilities
could help to avert an influenza pandemic, scientists said on Wednesday.
A state
veterinarian, dressed in protective clothing, enters a special protection
zone around a coastal area near Oskarshamn, Sweden, March 1, 2006.
[Reuters] |
Researchers from the US
Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response
System (DoD-GEIS) in Maryland said the facilities would improve preparedness
against bird flu and other emerging infections in poor regions such as
sub-Saharan Africa.
"There is an existing model, based on a network of US military overseas
laboratories, that we believe is worth copying," said Jean-Paul Chretien of
DoD-GEIS in the journal Nature.
Since late 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed 93 people and infected 173.
Although it is essentially an animal disease, scientists fear it could mutate
into a form that could become highly infectious in humans and capable of causing
a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
The avian virus has spread in birds from Asia to countries in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa.
Chretien said developing countries often lack the surveillance facilities
essential for detecting and containing diseases. The military laboratories,
which work with the World Health Organization (WHO) and national governments,
would provide expertise in badly needed areas.
The US Naval Medical Research Unit-2 (NAMRU-2) in Jakarta helped to detect
avian influenza there last summer. Another unit in Egypt was essential in
spotting cases of the virus in humans in Turkey and Iraq, according to the
scientists.
Both units were among many set up decades ago. But due to budget cuts and
other reasons, labs in Panama, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia and
Malaysia have been closed.
The current DoD-GEIS influenza surveillance network, which was beefed up a
decade ago and supports but does not duplicate the WHO's work, includes sites in
more than 20 countries.
But the scientists said there are critical gaps.
"We cannot be optimistic that a deadly and easily transmissible disease
emerging in sub-Saharan Africa, or a rural part of Asia or South America, would
be detected, characterized and contained before spreading," said Chretien and
his colleagues.
They added that there is now an unprecedented opportunity to improve
preparedness against bird flu or other emerging diseases in poor countries.
The researchers called on the WHO to consider the model they propose and
judge its feasibility.
"The next pandemic -- which may or may not involve influenza -- could begin
anywhere in the world," they said. "Making long-term investments in laboratory
and epidemiologic capabilities could help us to detect and control it."
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