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I was lately invited to join a media orientation sponsored by TB
LINC (Linking Initiatives and Networking to Control Tuberculosis) in
Bacolod City. TB LINC is a non-government organization supported by
the United States Agency for International Development involved with
checking a longtime dreaded disease, tuberculosis, and now involved
in building public awareness on avian flu.
One can ask, of all diseases in the Philippines,
why avian flu? Fortunately, for the moment, avian flu is a
non-critical issue in the country. Yet, as one of my favorite
advertorials say, the best way to prepare for a disaster is when
there’s none.
If a country is to build up all the necessary
defenses against this disease that is now the scourge of more than
60 countries, or one third of all the countries of the world, you
have to start now, not later when the crisis is on our doorstep or
worse inside our homes. Government was very pro-active before, but
with no known avian flu infection in the country, the interest
appeared to have waned. Now, civil society is finally showing some
interest.
Avian flu, or avian influenza, commonly called
bird flu, refers to “influenza caused by viruses adapted to
birds.” The problem happens when the virus migrates from birds to
humans. Strains of influenza viruses are adapted to multiple
species, though they may be preferential toward a particular host.
Viruses responsible for influenza pandemics are adapted to both
humans and birds, unfortunately.
For instance, the genes of the Spanish flu virus
shows it to have genes adapted to both birds and humans, with more
genes coming from birds than less deadly later pandemic strains.
Avian influenza viruses are noninfectious for
most species. Infectious cases are usually asymptomatic, and while
infected with an avian flu virus, the animal doesn’t show signs of
the “flu.” Typically, when illness from an avian flu virus does
occur, it is the result of a virus strain adapted to one species
spreading to another species (usually from one bird species to
another bird species).
With human communities domesticating chickens,
ducks, turkeys and other fowls, humans have created species subtypes
(domesticated poultry) that can catch an avian flu virus adapted to
waterfowl that rapidly mutates into a form that can kill in days
over 90 percent of an entire flock. It can spread to other flocks,
killing 90 percent of them. When that happens, the best way to stop
it is to kill every domestic bird in the area.
Scientists are primarily concerned with the H5N1
avian flu virus that infected humans in the 1990s. Avian flu viruses
are now intensively studied, resulting in changes in what is
believed about flu pandemics, poultry farming, flu vaccination
research, and in flu pandemic planning.
H5N1 has evolved into a deadlier flu virus
strain that infects more species than any previously known flu virus
strain, and like any influenza virus, is ever mutating. Robert
Webster, a leading expert on avian flu, published an article in
American Scientist calling for adequate resources to fight what he
sees as a major world threat to possibly billions of lives.
To date, the only Southeast Asian country with
no confirmed case of avian flu is the Philippines, and we should
keep it that way, for all time, hopefully. It is actually a
potential problem bearing on development work in the country.
Imagine what will happen when infection sets in,
and poultry farm after another will have to be destroyed just to
stop it in its tracks. Note that in the rural areas where jobs are
hardly available, domesticating fowls is a cottage industry,
employing thousands.
It is also one base of government service, with
local government units, national government agencies and civil
society groups involved in giving out poultry to farming communities
and cooperatives as a poverty alleviation measure. Shall we stop
this service on account of the bird flu scare?
Since we are not poultry-sufficient, the
Philippines imports a lot of chickens, which is still one of the
cheaper foodstuff available, even cheaper than fish and some
vegetables. Shall we curb our appetite for poultry protein because
of a severe bird flu problem in the region?
Environmentalists are also wary of the
possibility that avian flu can pass on through the millions of
migratory birds that populate watering holes in certain months of
the year all over the country. Some years back, Bulacan and Pampanga
were alarmed that some dead fowls were infected by migratory birds
flocking to the Candaba swamp, but this was not the case.
Civil society has resurrected an avian flu
campaign. Hopefully, this time, there would be better campaign
management, leading to more public information and awareness of how
people in the Philippines are connected to Asia and the rest of
humanity. It will also educate us on the finer points of border
control, and why it does not necessarily mean patrol boats, nor
human, computerized and satellite patrols.
ngamolo@manilatimes.net
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