Vaccination may be the ultimate solution

Vaccination may be the ultimate solution to the avian flu problem.
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Rome chief of the Animal Health Service Dr Joseph Domenech said mass vaccinations were necessary, as well as the development of new poultry vaccines that can prevent a human pandemic.
He said the FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) had plans for field trials in vaccinating ducks in Vietnam and Indonesia.
"Laboratories should speed up efforts to develop new poultry vaccines or to assess their efficiency, particularly in ducks," he said.
Dr Domenech said the FAO had issued an advisory against the use of anti-viral drugs used on humans, such as amantadine, against avian flu.
Chinese farmers had reportedly used the drug to treat major bird flu outbreaks in chickens.
"The use of an anti-viral drug in poultry will create drug resistance and hamper the treatment of avian flu in humans," he said.
Dr Domenech said that Asia needed about RM380 million (US$100 million) over the next two years to fund a viable programme to fight bird flu, but had only received about one-tenth of the amount.
"Pledges from donors such as the European Union and the United States are still not coming in fast enough," he said.
World Health Organisation regional director for the Western Pacific Dr Shigeru Omi said the risk of a human pandemic was extant.
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