I want them alive!
That is the call from Walter Boyce, the co-director of the NIH Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Research, in his Nature Commentary about the global surveillance of avian flu infections.
"..dead birds do not tell us about the birds that don’t get sick when infected – those that could spread H5N1 over longer distances"
He highlights three steps to improve the current approach to tracking avian flu infections:
1.Greater sharing of data and virus samples.
2.Greater surveillance of wild birds, particularly in endemic regions.
3.Better characterisation and diagnoses of all virus sub-types - remembering that H5N1 is not the only strain that poses a pandemic threat…
In light of the continuing stand-off with Indonesia, how realistic are these suggestions?
The Commentary is currently available free here.
Comments
Excellent point. Valid not only with respect to the difficulties of Indonesian policy, but world wide. At the risk of sounding dramatic, the exigencies of evolving crises, such as the H5N1 concern, wait for no man and certainly not the wheels of diplomacy. While it is trendy in certain quarters to talk about a "war" on avian flu and other potential outbreaks, too rarely is this language accompanied by any sort of military precision or operational action. The potential for world wide or national suffering is as great or far greater than seen in modern conflicts, yet many seem content to merely talk and negociate at these crisis points, rather than to focus on getting samples promptly from the region to where they can be tested.
Posted by: Joseph Shorpkenoff | February 5, 2008 04:17 AM