Let’s not sit back over flu threat

It was first named Mexican flu and when Mexico protested, it was renamed swine flu and this annoyed animal rights activists.

Finally the World Health Organization coined a name that it was sure would annoy no one — Influenza A (H1N1).

The virus has so far killed 80 people and infected more than 11,000 in 42 countries.

The latest epidemic comes after one known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which started in Asia, killed 774 people worldwide after it hit in 2003. However, SARS still exists and is continuing to kill its victims.

H1N1 is already in Asia with Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, the Philippines reporting cases.

Still untouched

The good news is that Africa is still untouched by H1N1 save for some cases that were investigated in South Africa and Egypt, but found to be false.

So far, the continent has been hit by the bird flu, named H5N1 by WHO. But even this is limited — only in Egypt and Nigeria. In Egypt, bird flu, also known as Avian Influenza, has killed 27 people.

“Somehow, somebody decided to start this epidemic (H1N1) in very rich countries ... This helped all of us,” said Tonga’s Health minister Viliami Tangi at the recent WHO congress in Geneva. Currently, the fears of a global flu pandemic are very high as shown by the attention the WHO congress gave to the H1N1 virus.

The agency shortened its annual assembly to five days from nine to allow officials to compare notes on the virus and return home sooner to track the new disease.

At the congress, discussions on other diseases were put off to 2010, angering activists.

One such disease is Chagas, an insect-borne disease that has infected 14 million people, mainly in Latin America, and kills 15,000 a year.

But, the fact remains that in a globalised world, a flu crisis that hits on all continents would be a disaster.

This is a world that currently has thousands of international travel platforms and no country can control all entries to its territory.

Even shutting borders or airports cannot control the spread of an epidemic in a world already addicted to free movement of its residents.

Much of the world’s fear of a flu crisis results from experience with the last pandemic that hit in 1918.

The disease started in mild form but returned six months later in a much more lethal form, killing between 50 and 100 million people in the 1918-1920 period. There was also another less deadly pandemic in 1957 and 1968.

Don’t know borders

Meanwhile, in the current flu crisis, Mexico has been at pains to tell of its innocence.

Says Mr Jorge Laguna Celis, Mexico’s deputy ambassador in Nairobi: “Mexico protested over the name of swine flu because we believe that in an inter-dependent world, challenges such as pandemics or desertification cannot be attributed to a single nation. Pandemics do not know borders.’’

He adds that there was no scientific basis that the H1N1 influenza virus originated in Mexico. “We know that it spread in Mexico. Scientists at WHO are still trying to find out the root cause of the virus.’’

He adds: “The government of Mexico acted swiftly and with transparency in the wake of this epidemic. We immediately alerted the United Nations. We disclosed all information regarding cases of patients with severe respiratory illnesses because during the first days of the crisis, not all Mexican medical facilities were equipped to identify the H1N1 virus.’’

Under WHO rules, all its 193 member states have a duty to equip national health facilities to detect any illness, set up controls at borders in case of an epidemic and inform the population on the safety measures to follow.

Mexico reported its first cases around April 26 and so far, there are close to 4,000 confirmed cases in the central American country.

Worldwide, the reaction was initially severe. Nations put up checkpoints at airports and in Egypt, 300,000 pigs were slaughtered allegedly to prevent a flu pandemic.

In Hong Kong, 300 guests and staff were detained at a hotel for a week after a Mexican traveller carrying the virus stayed in the hotel.

Mr Celis admits that in the first days of the crisis, not all Mexican medical facilities were equipped to identify the H1N1 virus.

In Africa, there is need for preparedness as the H1N1 virus marches on in much of the world.

Medical staff need to prepare laboratories, drug stockpiles, and vaccine-making capacity as Africa awaits its fate.

Northern Africa countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia which are closest to Europe need to step up their preparedness.