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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called on Thursday for urgent and unified response to military actions “alarming” increase cases of flu avian infection
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called on Thursday for urgent and unified response to military actions “alarming” increase cases of flu avian infection in humans and animals throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
He H5N1 virus has spread more than ever, reaching South America and Antarctica and infecting new wild and domestic animals, he said in a statement.
“From the end of 2023 we are seeing an increase in cases of people getting sick and the spread of the virus to new animal species,” said Kachen Wongsatapornchai, regional manager of FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.
“The emergence of new, more easily transmissible A/H5N1 strains increases the threat of a pandemic. Immediate and coordinated preventive measures are essential.”
The UN agency calculated Cambodia reports 13 new human cases from late 2023, with additional cases in China and Vietnam.
Indonesia and the Philippines are under increased scrutiny due to their diverse ecological landscapes and limited biosecurity measures, while India, Nepal and Bangladesh are also battling outbreaks, he said.
He called on member countries to cooperate in implementing comprehensive surveillance systems, including whole genome sequencing, to track the spread and evolution of the virus.
He also called on governments, international organisations and the private sector to share information transparently and stressed the need to strengthen biosecurity measures in the poultry sector.
Bird flu is transmitted to farm animals from wild birds.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread across the planet in recent years, killing billions of farmed and wild birds and infecting dozens of mammal species.
Australia, which has faced three parallel outbreaks of bird flu, reported one human case of H5N1 in May.
Earlier this year, a Chinese woman died from a rare subtype of H3N8 bird flu, the first death in the world from the strain.
Scientists tracking the spread of bird flu are increasingly concerned that gaps in surveillance could leave a new pandemic several steps behind, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen leading experts on the disease.
Reuters
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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