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A dark cloud is casting a shadow over the globe. More and more cases of bird flu are being reported across the world, making real previous concerns that the disease could trigger a crisis.
In China, the new situation requires upgraded efforts from both the government and the public so the threat does not spiral out of control.
A fresh outbreak of the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus in East China's Anhui Province, the second in China within a week, demonstrates the need to further raise our game.
We have been on the alert over the past few days. Still, the flu has attacked relentlessly, intensifying concerns that we humans are at risk of being sickened on a large scale.
There are no reports of human infections in China, yet.
But the chance of a human outbreak would be higher if we lose control of infections among chickens and geese, poultry that people of course have close contact with.
The fact that three global migration routes cross Chinese territory, coupled with loose poultry breeding standards, increases the difficulty of keeping the situation under control.
China has put a huge amount of human and material resources into taking preventative measures. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Forestry Administration have set up monitoring networks on separate fronts. Vaccination, culling and surveillance have all been used to try to halt the spread of the virus.
The Anhui outbreak shows we need to take more effective measures.
It is not that local authorities have not taken enough precautions. It is almost impossible to detect the virus in poultry in breeding facilities before the flu erupts as the roots of the infection are still puzzling.
The most urgent matter for local authorities is to prevent the outbreak from spreading to neighbouring villages.
For the rest of the country, monitoring must be strengthened at breeding facilities and sites frequented by wild birds to facilitate quick responses.
To prevent an epidemic, we do not have to introduce novel methods, but rather repeat and strengthen approaches that have proved effective during past crises.
It pays to raise public awareness of ways to deal properly with poultry to avoid passing bird flu to humans.
Information disclosure must be transparent to ensure public confidence in the authorities.
Truth is sometimes covered up to prevent public panic. But the severe acute respiratory syndrome c risis demonstrated that the public can in fact be made to panic more if fed rumours rather than calm accounts of reality.
There is nothing more frightening than facing the unknown.
Relevant departments must co-operate under a unified bird flu management system. The more co-ordinated the three departments involved are, the more effective our overall effort will be.
Governments at all levels are reportedly strengthening policies, conducting medical checks at livestock markets, to control the situation. They need to implement preventative regulations more thoroughly to ward off the worst case scenario.
(China Daily October 26, 2005)
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