Vietnam acts to contain bird flu

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 16 January 04, Radio Singapore International

Vietnam has ordered the culling of chickens in all 12 regions engaged in the bird flu epidemic.

This is one of a number of strict measures proposed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to stop the spread of bird flu around the country.

Vietnamese reports have revealed that 18 people may have been infected by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza and 13 people have died so far.

Are the measures taken by the Vietnamese officials enough to curb the outspread of a bird flu epidemic?

Valarie Tan put this question to Mr Peter Cordingley (PC), WHO's Spokesperson for the Western Pacific.

PC: The truth of the matter is we don't know. We don't know because we don't have people out in the field at the moment looking at what's going on. What we do know is that Vietnam has got an enormous problem on its hands to kill all these chickens. And they do have to be killed. The Vietnamese chicken industry is not like those in the west - there are small farms, there are large farms, there are chickens in the backyard, chickens in the streets, all these chickens have to be found, rounded up and killed.

Even though currently the virus highly contagious among chickens is believed to spread to humans through contact with faeces of infected birds, WHO has said that if human-to-human transmission occurs, this could be worse than SARS. So what can they do to prevent a human-to-human transmission?

PC: When WHO says that its deadlier than SARS, that's a doomsday scenario.
Its subject to all kinds of conditions. There's no evidence at all in any of the cases in Vietnam that human-to-human transmission is going on. When there's transmission from chicken to human, it looks like a dead-end transmission. The virus has caused damage, its killed people certainly, but it has not moved on to other people.

What happens if human to human transmission occurs?

PC: Well, we do have defences against human influenza, we have vaccines there are some drugs out there that do actually cure. There are public health measures that can be taken. But I want to stress, that yes it could be worse than SARS, because there are obvious things that could happen that would be a really serious danger to international public health. But those things to happen, they have to be in place but they are not in place at the moment.

Vietnam is definitely in a great state of urgency now. Vietnamese officials are also taking the matter very seriously. Do they have enough resources and manpower to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading?

PC: No, quite obviously the Vietnamese need all the international help it can get. We've got people in there, we're going to get more people in there. Vital to the effort is the assistance of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the FOA which has enormous expertise of culling chickens and managing crisis like this. Well, Dr Hitashi Oshitani who's the doctor who here in Manila led the response to the SARs outbreak has flown to Hanoi to lead the response to the bird flu crisis. He's got two jobs to do. One of them is to draw up some case definitions, just like we have with SARS in the early stages. Remember we put out this message that if you have a fever of more than 38, if you have a dry and productive cough, if you have light breathing problems, seek medical help. They'll be looking at the cases in Vietnam studying the case definitions. And the second thing he's got to do, is to put together an international team. They'll be fanned out across the country, taking their special skills with them. And when that happens, we have a better reading of how serious the situation is.