A top United Nations official on Monday said that increased cooperation and vigilance on the part of both international and national health systems can help curb the continued threat of a major new influenza A (H1N1) pandemic - popularly known as swine flu. The advice came at the opening ceremony of a symposium on animal health organized jointly by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
"There is still a real threat of a pandemic, and the world health bodies and governments must remain in full alert until this danger has passed," said Dr. David Nabarro, Assistant Secretary General and UN System Coordinator for Influenza and Global Food Security, in his keynote speech at the International Symposium on Sustainable Improvement of Animal Production and Health.
The good news, he said, is that pandemic preparedness has moved forward over the last four years thanks to the partnerships organized at regional and global levels to ensure communication channels are sufficiently open for authorities in different parts of the world to heed warnings on possible causes for concern.
With at least two new pathogens capable of harming humans emerging each year, 75 per cent originating in the animal kingdom, the prompt diagnosis of and response to disease in animals is vital both for disease control and for assessing practices that are most likely to result in risks to animal health and for people, said Nabarro.
"There is a huge problem associated with zoonotic diseases, of course, and symposia like these re-enforce the cooperation that is absolutely essential to curb pandemics," said Gerrit Viljoen, who heads the Animal Production and Health Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division.
New technologies emerging every day, many of them nuclear and related techniques, are essential pieces in ensuring appropriate diagnostics and control of animal-origin disease such as avian and H1N1 influenza pandemics, known as zoonotic diseases.
Praising the Mexican authorities for acting quickly by sharing samples of the flu, referring to the recent outbreak of new influenza A (H1N1), Nabarro said international cooperation and communication - increasing access to technology - as well as public awareness enabled health and agricultural authorities worldwide to produce the viral diagnostic reagents necessary to both diagnose, treat and control the disease as quickly as possible.
The FAO/IAEA Symposium on Sustainable Improvement of Animal Production and Health is taking place from 8-11 June 2009 in Vienna, Austria. The event is organised in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Animal Health Organization (OIE).