$15 Million Avian Flu Grant For Indonesia

The World Bank is preparing a $15 million grant for Indonesia as part of a broad donor effort fight avian flu more effectively in the country.

The move came as the United Nations Avian Flu Coordinator, David Nabarro, called for sustained political commitment by world leaders to fighting bird flu, saying "there will be another influenza pandemic one day, but we don't know when."

Speaking at a media conference on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the Bank and the IMF, Jim Adams, the head of the Bank's avian flu taskforce said a severe pandemic could the global economy over $1 trillion and perhaps as high as $2 trillion in the worst case scenario.

At the same conference, Laos Health Minister and the Thai Government's chief epidemiologist, also revealed their countries were facing difficulties in combating the spread of the virus among animals.
Nabarro and Adams, who's also the Bank's Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, also expressed concern about the spread of the virus to Africa, calling for greater resources so countries with the greatest needs have access to the resources they require.

Adams said there were now laboratory confirmed cases in wild birds or poultry in 55 countries, with an estimated 220 million bird deaths and significant damage to rural livelihoods.

"At present, the number of deaths in the population stands at 144 out of 244 infections which have been identified in 10 countries," he said. "Virtually all the human cases have been traced to close contact with poultry, but even then I think that we have been very fortunate in that infections remain relatively rare, considering that millions of people may have been exposed to the H5N1 virus.

"Adams said at a global level, $1.2 billion of close to $2 billion pledged by the international community in Beijing in January to set up avian flu programs in countries, has now been committed.

"On the Bank's side, we have been working in virtually all of the countries, developing countries, that have been affected by an avian flu outbreak, providing advice and financing in the development of projects to tackle the challenge.

"Financing totally about $150 million has been committed for projects in eleven countries," Adams said.
"Our emphasis in our work is on the development challenge. We are not trying to deal with the emerging immediate crisis, but to rebuild veterinary systems, to do the survelliance work that has to be done, and to put in place the strengthening of health systems to begin to put in place the capacity to deal with problems that emerge."

Laos Health Minister, Dr Ponmeck Dalaloy, told the media conference his country was facing a huge task to control spread of the virus.

"As you know, our country is a small country, but we have five neighbors and more than 5,000 kilometres of frontier," Dalaloy said. "So the task for us to do that is very huge because our health system as well as the system of Vietnam is still at the low level, so the task is huge."

Thailand's Chief Epidemiologist, Dr Kumnuan, said his country had thought it would be easy to wipe out
avian flu, but found that was not the case.

"In Thailand, we have been fighting with avian flu for almost three years and we acknowledge that this is not an easy job," he said. "First we thought that it is very easy to eradicate avian flu, but time has proved that we are wrong. We have to continue with our fighting.

"So far we have fought with avian flu in poverty and we have 24 human cases, 17 cases in 2004, five cases in 2005 and this year, we already have two cases. We cannot currently totally control avian flu, but we tried. The Thai Government tried very hard."

The UN's David Nabarro told the conference it was clear countries were struggling to deal with bird flu, but added that the international community was coordinated in its bid to tackle the virus.

"And so I would like in a way to send this message to the taxpayers of the world who fund organizations like the World Bank, who fund the World Health Organiszation, the Food and Africultural Organization. What we have done in relation to avian influenzea is we have show that the organizations that you are funding with your taxes can work in coordinated support of countries.

Nabarro also said political commitment from the top down was not only needed but also open communication and information to the public.

"And then perhaps very importantly, when people lose their bids, their livelihoods are badly affected; the laborers who work on the chicken farms are suddenly out of work. The people who are involved in processing of meat in the markets are out of work. We must pay attention to livelihoods and compensate."

"Please make sure that Africa, that Indonesia and that other countries with great needs do manage to access the resources they require." Adams told the conference he was worried about the rapid spreaad of H5N1 to Africa.

"We were, I admit, surprised at the quick spread to Africa that emerged originally in Nigeria, apparently through the imports of birds from another continent.

"We are worried within the African continent that we don't have access yet to the same level of resources we have for East Asia and for Eastern Europe and so I think that is a problem." He said that would the subject of a meeting in Bamako later this year.

By World Bank