This morning’s news of note:
Accurate information helps reduce losses from bird flu [Excerpt]
VietNamNet Bridge –
Addressing the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop for journalists on Sept. 4, the Rector of the Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH), Le Vu Anh, said that economic losses caused by bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam constituted one percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The US Deputy Chief of Mission , Virgina E. Palmer, praised Vietnam for its achievements in bird flu prevention and control, which has set an example for other countries to follow.
As one of the first of the 61 countries reporting an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry, Vietnam experienced four major outbreaks between Dec. 2003 and Aug. 2008, with 106 reported human cases, 52 of which were fatal.
[...] At the workshop entitled “Getting the story”, jointly held by the HSPH and the US Embassy in Hanoi ,participants discussed challenges to bird flu prevention and control in Vietnam , such as clamping down on the smuggling of poultry and the lack of knowledge amongst vets in dealing with the virus.
Transparent and accurate communication of information is vital to the success of fighting H5N1, whether in humans or in birds [wild and domestic] . Information dissemination is only part of the equation however, that information must also reach a receptive audience with the capacity to “understand the message”. Information that is either too heavy on the minutia [though I do love it] or too thin on meaningful and useful facts is information that will more often than not fail in its delivery.
The broader implication is the exact polarizing issue of viral sample sharing and access.
From yesterday’s Xinuanet…
Indonesia hopes agreement on bird flu virus specimen to be settled [Excerpt]
JAKARTA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Indonesia hopes negotiations on the material transfer agreement for bird flu virus specimen could be finished in the inter-governmental meeting of WHO members in November, health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said.
“Indonesia hopes the agreement could be made simple but able to accommodate the interests of the developing countries, Antara news agency on Friday quoted the minister as saying.
“We wish our property right to the virus would receive recognition and we had access to information on where the virus had been taken to and how it had been handled,” she said here on Thursday.
She said the agreement must also cover deals on benefit sharing both financially or otherwise that come from the result of researches on specimen sent by affected countries.
Talks on mechanism of avian flu virus sharing was started early in 2007 after the Indonesian government protested the unfair mechanism of virus sharing and exchange of the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN).
This past week I have spent a great deal of energy preparing for a natural disaster that thankfully didn’t happen. I was driven to action by an understanding of “what could be” and a steady stream of information on evolution of threat. Without either of those two components I doubt I would have done anything at all. The saying “ignorance is bliss” really isn’t accurate, but rather ignorance is just ignorance. That ignorance is fine if it is a state one wishes to exist in. However, that ignorance becomes something “other” when it is inflicted or imposed by others.
To draw upon the recent and current tropical systems [yet again]: There are a number of small island nations in the paths of storms that plague the Atlantic ocean. Some of those island nations suffer crushing poverty while others enjoy a level of affluence most Americans would envy. When the US government operates it hurricane satellites, hurricane hunter aircraft [with human assets in harm's way], when experts at NOAA issue projections, analysis, advisories and warning the US government does not charge a “fee” for the utilization of that information. No fee is charged to the television, cable, and internet sites that use and disperse that information. No fee is charged to those island nations, or those in Central America for Gulf of Mexico storms. No fee is charged — at all. The service is provided because it is needed to safeguard human beings.
The US government provides data, which it spends a great deal of US taxpayer funds to gather, analyze, and disseminate, because it can, and not only because it can, but because no one else can do the job or would absorb the costs associated with doing that job.
What would be the reaction of US citizens and the surrounding nations [large and small] if the US didn’t provide this information?
What would be the reaction if because of the failure to provide data 100′s or 1,000′s or 10,000′s of people died who would otherwise had a chance of surviving?
Something to think about….
SZ
