Viet Nam to Host Ministerial Conference on Strengthening

 

Global Defences against New Diseases, 19-21 April

 

BANGKOK, 1 April ‑‑ A ministerial conference to marshal international cooperation against the advance of new infectious diseases opens in Hanoi this month, drawing on experience gained in the responses to pandemic A/H1N1 influenza and H5N1 avian influenza.

Viet Nam, with its strong record in contending with both A/H1N1 and H5N1, will host the International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza (IMCAPI) from 19 to 21 April.  In attendance will be officials from health and agriculture ministries around the world, as well as United Nations and other international agencies and representatives from the development community.

According to Dr. Cao Duc Phat, Viet Nam’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Conference will be “an important event that will allow us to consolidate the lessons learnt from our efforts to control H5N1 and respond to H1N1… It will also provide commitment and direction on tackling emerging disease threats both now and into the future”.

The novel A/H1N1 virus which erupted in 2009 was only one in a long series of infectious diseases that have made their way from the animal kingdom to humans.  Advancing globalization is likely to accelerate the speed at which new ones are transmitted, as was evident in the rapid global spread of H1N1 in mid-2009.  The opening up of isolated habitats to human development and the disruptive effects of climate change on ecosystems will probably increase the ability of diseases to make the jump from animal to human hosts.

Organizers are counting on the Conference to come up with enhanced cooperative measures for continuing to:  push back the extent of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; improve systems to detect, assess and respond to existing and potential influenza pandemics; and address the root causes of disease emergence at the animal-human-ecosystem interface.

Experience in curtailing the spread of H5N1, which devastated bird flocks and poultry on three continents, in addition to causing hundreds of human fatalities, has validated the “one health” approach, involving humans, animals and natural environments.  Improvements at the grass-roots level in healthy poultry-raising techniques are proving their worth, and will need to be extended as increasing worldwide demand for food places a premium on such primary sources of protein as chicken.

Bird Flu Threat Remains

The H5N1 virus nevertheless is still present in many locales and is endemic in five countries.  The possibility remains that this highly pathogenic virus, with high fatality rates among both infected birds and infected humans, could undergo a mutation that will make it rapidly transmissible among people.

According to David Nabarro, Senior United Nations System Influenza Coordinator, the arrival of the H1N1 pandemic should not detract from efforts to stop the spread of H5N1, which remains a threat to animal and human health, and to achievement of the Millennium Development Goal target of curtailing world hunger.

In terms of A/H1N1, international health regulations adopted in 2005 and measures put in place since then against the threat of a rapidly transmissible H5N1 mutation proved efficacious in the response to the 2009 pandemic.  Also helping was the relatively mild virulence of A/H1N1, in comparison, for example, with the high fatality rate of avian influenza.

Nevertheless, the A/H1N1 pandemic has killed more than 16,000 people, poses a serious threat to pregnant women and young people, and has placed severe strains on health systems in even economically advanced nations.  Furthermore, the severity of the pandemic remains to be tested in West Africa, now facing A/H1N1 for the first time during its peak influenza season.

The Hanoi Conference is the seventh in a series of international ministerial conferences on animal and human influenza since 2005, and the first since the 2009 pandemic.  Organized by the Government of Viet Nam in coordination with the United States and the European Union, it is supported by key international agencies in animal and human health:  the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); World Organization for Animal Health (OiE); United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); World Health Organization (WHO); Asian Development Bank (ADB); and the World Bank, together with the Office of the United Nations System Influenza Coordinator (UNSIC).

Journalists interested in covering IMCAPI can contact Michelle Delaney, UNSIC Communication and Coordination Officer, e-mail:  delaneym@un.org, Thailand tel.:  +66 (0) 2288 2688, Viet Nam tel.:  +84 (0) 1202 011844; or Tim Wall, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, e-mail:  wallt@un.org, tel.:  +1 212 963 5851 or +1 213 447 5954 (mobile).  Please see also the official IMCAPI website at www.imcapi-hanoi-2010.org and the United Nations System Influenza web portal, www.un-influenza.org.

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For information media • not an official record