Bird flu

As societies all over world go to action to mitigate the dangers posed by avian influenza or bird flu, it is important not to exaggerate the problem. But it would be foolish if we fall into complacency or underestimate it.

The Maltese government has done its best so far to inform the people about the 'pandemic' that is not yet on. Or has it started spreading, unseen?

Indeed, The Times correspondent in Brussels reports that Malta has ordered half a million vaccines against the possible influenza. Health Minister Louis Deguara was reported to have said that Malta is taking no risks. Could he have acted differently?

We have been told that so far the people infected by the virus have contracted it from birds and that the virus has not yet learned how to jump from human to human.

But medics believe that it is on the verge of doing so. If it does, then a good sign of this will be the appearance of clusters of infected people around a person known to be suffering from the flu.

Meanwhile, Hungary has indicated that it has developed an anti-dote to the flu. If this is true, then perhaps we can rest a little, of course until the next alarming development.

The dangers of bird flu drive home the point that globalisation has made the world a smaller place, a global village of instantaneous communication of good things and bad.

No good in the world is deprived of its shortcomings. But it is in periods such as these, when threats loom on our horizon, that we begin to value international solidarity. One can feel at least a little additional comfort that Malta does not stand alone.

Solidarity is one non-monetary advantage of being in the EU. EU member states are co-operating closely to fight the avian flu danger.

At a recent extraordinary General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, the European Council took some measures to ensure co-operation at the EU level - instead of abandoning every state to itself, "every man for himself". Will they be effective?

The Council recognised that avian and pandemic influenza are global threats and called for an international co-ordinated response. The Council further underlined that this problem must be addressed simultaneously within the EU and at source.

In other words, wherever it strikes, measures to eradicate it must be taken right away, as happened in Turkey and Romania.

In October a Presidency Group was established in the EU to provide a forum for improved co-ordination and the sharing of information at a strategic level between those EU level mechanisms handling different strands of both pandemic and avian influenza issues in the EU as well as at their source.

The effectiveness of national measures would be enhanced by effective EU co-ordination. Indeed, the Council has praised the ongoing co-ordination measures being taken at expert level in the Commission and the Council, including the regular meetings of chief veterinary and chief medical officers, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, and the meeting held by heads of consular crisis units together with health experts on September 29.

Many Council formations and other EU bodies are dealing with the challenge and will continue to do so in the next few months.

Indeed, the Commission is working on updating a directive on the prevention, control and eradication of avian influenza. Work on this new directive is expected to be completed in time for the Council (Agriculture) meeting on December 8.

The EU Council agreed that all the measures should be gathered together in a comprehensive Action Plan, which would also help the EU foreign ministers keep the situation under close review and return to it if the situation so requires.