Cooperative crisis management and avian influenza, published in 2006, on Risk Assessment Guide for International Contagious Disease Prevention and Risk Mitigation is one of the most comprehensive reports produced by Colonel Donald F. Thompson and Captain Renata P. Louie of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, National Defense University, Washington DC.
This training module is part of a series of outbreak response training for H5N1 in Egypt, 2008. It gives an overview of different methods and techniques and their applicibility under African circumstances. The ptaining was provided under the Better Training for Safer Food program of the European Uninion.
I would like to share my vision the possibilities to prevent the return of H7N9. All measures taken in the past to stop major outbreaks have totally failed in every sense of the word. It is time for radical change in dealing with outbreaks. This is my step-by-step approach to battle outbreaks.
This presentation is handling about Carcass Disposal through In house composting as one of the options to dispose carcasses after an outbreak. Complete depopulation of infected flocks is often required for highly virulent diseases such as Avian Influenza. Typical methods of disposal of poultry carcasses with highly virulent disease include: Composting – Incineration – Landfill disposal – Rendering – Burial.
The guidelines are intended to help countries identify priorities, objectives and the desired goal of disease control programmes. Disease control programmes are often established with the aim of eventual eradication of agents at a country, zone or compartment level. While this approach is desirable, the needs of stakeholders may require a broader range of outcomes. For some diseases, eradication may not be economically or practically feasible and options for sustained mitigation of disease impacts may be needed. It is important to clearly describe the programme goals and these may range from simple mitigation of disease impacts to progressive control or eradication of the disease. These guidelines highlight the importance of economic assessment of disease intervention options in the design of programmes taking into consideration effectiveness, feasibility of implementation, as well as costs and benefits. The purpose is to provide a conceptual framework that can be adapted to a particular national and epidemiological context.
This policy document outlines how Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza (HPAI) H7N7 will be eradicated in the 2012 outbreak at Australia, Maitland NSW. The policy aims to achieve eradication in the shortest possible time, while limiting the risk of human infection and minimising negative impacts on industry and the community.
One Health approach is a new initiative to improve the conditions for communities in developing countries. In this presentation of September 2011, Dr. Jeff Gilbert (former member of the WHO SARS team in China) presents the One Health approach, focusing on the biomedical aspects of human + animal + wildlife. This new approach is developed to as a trans disciplinary approach to transform vision into the involvement of researchers, community managers and decision makers. By participation and consensus building, local communities are included in the process to improve their living environment.
The On Health approach makes it possible to actively involve local communities to ‘real world’ problems perceived by the society, and to re-integrate knowledge in separate disciplines, using interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary approaches.
By combining disciplinary knowledge, concepts, and methods, this holistic approach is used to create a composite picture of nature, within its social-natural system.
Combining knowledge, teaching, and research from different disciplines creates a deeper understanding on how to improve local conditions on human + animal + wildlife, both on the scientific site as well within local communities.
This report on the UN China One Health event (June 2011) is focusing on diseases at the human-animal-interface. ‘One Health’ and ‘Ecohealth’ are ways of thinking about, approaching and investigating diseases that go beyond the traditional pathogen-centric approach.
By examining the complex issues that result in disease emergence and transmission and this information can be used to implement better disease control and preventive measures.
One of the conclusions is that the rapid development in Asia means that the complex effects of changes to ecosystems not always have been discussed or examined in a way that takes account of the positive and negative effects of development.
For highly pathogenic avian influenza it has been important to understand how the disease emerged and spread so that appropriate measures could be implemented.
The arsenal of public health tools to reduce morbidity and mortality from an influenza pandemic is limited. Options include vaccines, antiviral drugs, and interventions such as respiratory protection and social distancing. In a statement The World Health Organization (WHO) described the importance of a vaccination strategy:
“Influenza vaccination is the most important intervention in reducing the impact of influenza, and a key component of the WHO response and preparedness efforts for influenza of pandemic potential, including avian influenza A(H5N1), A(H9N2) and A(H7N9).”
Data for seasonal influenza vaccines and the 2009 A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccines provide a basis for estimating potential effectiveness of A(H7N9) vaccines. Inactivated seasonal influenza vaccines have a pooled efficacy estimate of 59%, primarily for younger adults. A paucity of evidence exists for demonstrating protection in adults aged 65 years or older, particularly with influenza A vaccines.
Three primary scenarios exist for how this A(H7N9) virus outbreak will unfold:
1. The virus could disappear in the animal reservoir, ending new human cases
2. The virus could persist in the animal reservoir, resulting in sporadic human infections.
3. The virus could, through mutation or reassortment, become readily transmissible between humans, resulting in a global pandemic.
The number of new confirmed H7N9 cases per day in China appears to be decreasing. A few weeks ago, the count was rising by some 10 new cases a day. On Tuesday, only two new cases were reported. Of the total 130 patients infected in China, 43 have since recovered. The virus has killed 31 people in China as of early May.
Experts have called H7N9 the most lethal bird flu virus so far, with no vaccine yet available. But China appears to have averted a pandemic, by shutting live animal markets in three cities, including Shanghai, which reported the first case of the virus.
Lu Hongzhou, president at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, said: “After we shut those down in the city, there were no more new cases. That’s evident. So we should not just do this in Shanghai but all over the country as well. It should also be a long-term preventive measure against bird flu spreading. If livestock markets continue to operate with transactions carried out like in the past, the disease will recur. ” Even though the source of infection is yet unknown,
Chinese officials said out of the total 130 infected cases, two thirds had direct contact with live poultry. Minimising such contact will be a challenge, especially in rural China. Data from 2012 showed that about 49 per cent of China’s total population still lives in villages and nearly every household rears some form of livestock. Mr Lu said: “Some provinces like Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi still have sporadic cases, proving that the source of infection is not just within the Yangtze River Delta.
It’s possible that the virus exists in waterfowl, poultry and migratory birds in Southern China as well, which will be a huge challenge for us going forward.
“We can close down livestock markets in the cities but how do we manage the live fowl kept by every peasant household in the villages? The virus can also be like H5N1, with a few cases each year. This will be a huge challenge for us.”
Experts also expect the number of flu cases to go down as the temperature gets warmer in the coming months, but they doubt the virus will disappear completely.
The article was published online on May 10, 2013 at http://www.channelnewsasia.com.
