US, France, China jump-start bird flu efforts
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-03 09:11

WASHINGTON - The United States, China and France announced new efforts to fight a possible pandemic of avian flu, including $500 million to monitor the virus in poultry and practice runs for dealing with a dreaded outbreak.

U.S. officials detailed parts of their $7.1 billion plan to prepare for H5N1 avian influenza should it begin a human pandemic and defended their proposal to critics who said it was late and incomplete.

Birds take off in a suburban district in Shanghai November 1, 2005. The United States, China and France announced new efforts to fight a possible pandemic of avian flu, including $500 million to monitor the virus in poultry and practice runs for dealing with a dreaded outbreak. [Reuters]

A special Cabinet meeting held by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao decided to set aside 2 billion yuan from this year's fiscal budget to prevent the spread of bird flu, according to state radio and Xinhua news agency.

The H5N1 avian influenza has infected 122 people and killed 62 in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. It has decimated poultry flocks across many parts of Asia and has been detected in birds in Europe over the past month.

It is making steady mutations that scientists say could allow it to spread easily from person to person and cause a catastrophic global pandemic.

The World Health Organization has been urging countries to prepare as quickly as possible and hope an H5N1 pandemic does not come soon -- although WHO says some sort of pandemic is inevitable.

France announced the first test of its readiness to tackle an outbreak of bird flu -- a practice run sealing off an area around a village in the west of the country on Thursday.

A meeting in Brisbane of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum earlier in the week ended without specific recommendations, but Australian officials later discussed holding a simulated avian flu outbreak to help them prepare for a real one.