Pacific nations meet for pandemic planning conference

Via Pacific Magazine.net: Regional Experts To Gather For Pacific Pandemic Task Force Meeting. Excerpt:

Next week, the Pacific Avian and Pandemic Influenza Taskforce (PAPITaF) will meet in Nadi, Fiji Islands, from Monday to Wednesday to discuss the current state of preparedness for possible outbreaks of infectious diseases such as bird flu, pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases.

“Preparedness for avian and pandemic influenza will help the Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) to control other emerging scourges like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS ) as well as controlling current epidemics like dengue fever,” says Dr. Tom Kiedrzynski, Epidemiologist at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

A one-day workshop on dengue fever will be held on Thursday (Nov. 27) following the three-day regional forum on avian and pandemic influenza preparedness. 

According to Dr. Ken Cokanasiga, Animal Health and Production Adviser at SPC, “PICTs are still vulnerable to the introduction of the deadly bird flu H5N1 virus which is persisting in many countries in the world, including countries close to the Pacific Island region, such as Indonesia. 

“The threat of an influenza pandemic is persisting but PICTs are now facing the beginning of a new regional dengue pandemic and this is an obvious priority—scarce resources need to be used wisely,” adds Dr Kiedrzynski.

We should think carefully about this. Apart from the background roar of malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other diseases, the hot-zone countries really are facing emerging diseases like dengue.

H5N1 is barely audible in this roar, and governments in southeast Asia, especially, are understandably more worried about real deaths, not possible deaths. If we want to help prevent an H5N1 pandemic, we should be aware of other diseases that will only make H5N1 far worse.