Coming at the heels of the Thai government's desperate decision to include the soldiers and prisoners in the gigantic task of destroying all the flue stricken chickens, indications of the growing controversy over the causes and consequences of the epidemic in Pakistan, which has already taken quite a heavy toll, are only apt to make the confusion of general public worse confounded, thereby also leaving many bewildered by the perception of apathy in the concerned agencies which were expected to deal in time with the dangerously developing situation.
Understandable, of course, would normally be the urge of governments the world over to keep panicky reactions to the alarming developments reasonably subdued, as it happened in Thailand.
For only a couple of days prior to recourse to the extreme measure, the Thai cabinet members had eaten an all chicken dinner, evidently to boost public morale.
It will, however, be noted that no attempt was made at keeping the people in the dark about the destructive impact of the epidemic. This would certainly make a vivid contrast with the situation in Pakistan for a number of reasons.
Reference to this, among other things, may be made to the recent reports of officials and poultry farmers in Sindh coming to logger heads over even the number of chickens infected with the bird flu, while also pointing to conflicting opinions of relevant quarters on the very nature of the epidemic along with the varying estimates of damage it could unleash.
That the controversy coming to a head no less than three months, after the outbreak of the epidemic in and around Karachi, has not remained confined to Sindh alone, but also had its ripples felt in Islamabad, was revealed in an earlier Business Recorder Islamabad report, which had also pointed out that the Federal Ministry of Health had directed all the concerned departments to take preventive measures to cope with the bird flu in Karachi.
However, it was punctuated by a Health Ministry claim that the epidemic had not infected humans in Pakistan and that all the veterinary hospitals had been alerted to control its spread.
At the same time, it was also revealed that the authorities had been holding emergency meetings with the poultry breeders on arrangements for likely destruction of the infected flocks and vaccination of the rest.
Needless to point out, though, the federal government's approach towards remedying the situation will be seen as being also in sympathy with the Pakistan Poultry Association's contention of relatively milder strains of avian influenza virus, which do not transmit to humans, as against the strain that has caused widespread devastation in Thailand and Vietnam.
This comment is reported to have come from the Pakistan Agriculture Research Commission, basing its observations on the reports from non-government laboratories.
Again, while so observing, it also endorsed the PPA's contention of an estimated 3.5 million birds having died of that virus, which the Sindh Livestock and Agriculture has dubbed exaggerated and suggested the toll was under one million. It may also be noted that Parc has supported the PPA's rejection of culling the birds.
All in all, the conflicting views in such a serious matter would bring to the fore the disarray that continues hampering all the efforts for enlivening the country's economy with a marked emphasis on streamlining the administration.
For from all indications from concerned quarters, it would appear that all the state affairs have been running smoothly. Be that as it may, the serious warning the World Health Organisation has lately issued with regard to the killer strain of the bird flu has sounded the grave threat of millions of people around the world dying if the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia combined with another human influenza virus that is moving towards the region from the West.
This has reference to the alarming revelations Dr Shigeru Omi, Director of the WHO's Western Pacific office, made to reporters in Hanoi on Tuesday. As for the chance of the two viruses meeting and mutating, triggering a global pandemic, he termed it a possibility, pointing out "this is why we have to work very hard today, not tomorrow, to contain this, to prevent that mutation at the molecular level from happening."
According to him there was always a potential for such a perilous outbreak, resulting in serious global pandemic, which would involve not just hundreds but millions of people globally in the event of the dreaded mutation happening in the virus.
It will be noted that this warning synchronised with China becoming the 10th Asian country to confirm a bird flu outbreak. Saying that like Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, hit by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, weaker strains of the disease have been detected in Pakistan too.
It will also be noted that he also pointed out that although the number of human H5N1 infections was still limited, it was rising on a daily basis and, as more poultry became infected, the greater the chance of human infection, thereby, strengthening the grim prospect of this virus acquiring the potential for human-to-human transmission.
This was the reason enough, he said that "all member states share information promptly and in a transparent manner," with a keen eye on prevention, containment and control of the H5N1 virus, more so in view of a vaccine being, at least, six month's away.
One hopes that heeding the WHO warning, Pakistan would do well to align with countries and organisations in the same spirit in which it has joined the international war on terror.
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