WITH European Union governments on high alert for a possible bird flu outbreak across its borders, local public health and veterinary officials yesterday confirmed they had a contingency plan in place to deal with contamination swiftly and effectively.
As for criticisms regarding shortages of the anti-viral drug, Tammiflu, which has shown some effectiveness in limiting the flu’s symptoms, the Health Ministry said it was in the process of ordering more and assured it had enough in stock for people who would initially be affected.
Veterinary officer Alexandros Konis said the national contingency plan, which was first drawn up in 2003, revised at the beginning of last year and approved by the European Union, was a detailed account of what steps had to be taken from the moment a poultry farm was suspected of infection.
“When poultry in a holding is suspected of being infected or contaminated with avian influenza, the veterinary services will immediately activate an official investigation to confirm or rule out the presence of the disease,” he said.
Instead of operating from one central point, all five districts – Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta – have a local disease control centre. These centres contain all necessary equipment to deal with the situation and a possible outbreak. This includes special culling equipment, special body gear such as masks and gloves, and specialised disinfection units and vehicles, he said.
An infected farm in question would immediately be placed under “official surveillance”, banning people, other animals and vehicles moving to and from the farm without first being approved by the investigating veterinary officer, he added.
The investigator is then responsible for making a record of all categories of poultry at the farm including, among other things, how many have died, which displayed clinical symptoms and which displayed none.
“The birds would then be kept isolated so they could not come into contact with any other birds and none could leave the farm,” he said. This would include poultry meat, carcasses, animal feed, waste, droppings or anything liable to transmit the virus.
“Also, appropriate means of disinfection will be used at the entrances and exists of buildings housing poultry and of the farm itself.”
In the meantime, the veterinarian would investigate how the virus had infected the farm, if any new birds had recently been bought and, if yes, from where.
If the presence of avian influenza was officially confirmed, additional measures would be carried out to ensure it did not spread, he said.
“All poultry on the holding shall without delay be killed on the spot; all eggs shall be destroyed; any substance or waste likely to be contaminated shall be destroyed; and if any poultry was slaughtered during the virus’ presumed incubation period, the meat shall, wherever possible, be traced and destroyed,” Konis said.
The veterinary services would then establish a protection zone around the infected holding, based on a minimum radius of three kilometres, itself contained in a surveillance zone based on a minimum radius of 10 kilometres.
Konis said: “Within the protection zone, the movement of people handling and/or vehicles carrying poultry, poultry carcasses and eggs will be controlled and removing poultry, hatching eggs, used litter or manure from the farm will be prohibited without authorisation.” These measures would be maintained for at least 21 days following the preliminary cleaning and disinfection of the farm, he added.
Similar measures would apply to the wider surveillance zone for at least 30 days following disinfection of the infected holding.
Nevertheless, this contingency plan is only applicable if contamination occurs in the government-controlled areas. What if the occupied areas are infected first? A far more likely scenario following the widespread contamination across Turkey, which has so far left at least two children dead and more than a dozen people infected.
“If contamination occurs in the occupied areas we will set up disinfection posts at all checkpoints to disinfect vehicles’ tyres, as well as the drivers, to avoid transmission. At the moment, this has not been necessary because, according to information we have received, they have not had any cases of bird flu.”
In the meantime, Konis said officials at all checkpoints had been told to tighten controls of vehicles crossing over from the occupied areas, to ensure no animal products were being smuggled across. Authorities had also tightened controls at all ports and airports, particularly from countries known to have incidences of bird flu.
“For example we recently confiscated meat brought over by travellers flying back from Romania,” he said.
Meanwhile, senior Health Ministry official Dr Chrystalla Hadjianastasiou pointed out the public should not be overly panicked about contracting bird flu as it was not as easy as people feared.
“In countries with high levels of hygiene, you do not need to worry. As long as you wash your hands after handling dead chickens without putting them in your mouth first, and you cook your meat and eggs properly, there isn’t anything to worry about.”
Despite the low risk, Hadjianastasiou said all hospitals were on full alert for a possible human contraction of the H5N1 virus.
“If anyone is admitted with bird flu, hospital staff will monitor their symptoms, administer anti-viral drugs and keep them isolated, even though there has been no known human-to-human transmission of the virus,” she said. These were part of the security measures to prevent further transmission, she added.
Hadjianastasiou also dismissed criticisms the Health Ministry had neglected to purchase enough of the anti-viral drug, Tammiflu.
“We have enough for a number of emergency cases, such as people who come into direct contact with the infected birds. But because Cyprus is among those countries that does not have its own pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, it is eligible for the stock held by the World Health Organisation and the European Union in light of widespread infection. All we will have to do is request help and they will send us some.” Nevertheless, she did not think this would be necessary as the government was currently in the process of talking to pharmaceutical companies about importing more of the drug.
Besides, she added, “not everyone needs it. Only those who come in touch with infected birds or get sick do. Moreover, it is not a wonder drug and only lessens the duration of symptoms and doesn’t prevent them. People can still die from bird flu if they take Tammiflu.”
Hadjianastasiou also accused politicians of electioneering, and said some of the statements being made about how the health services had failed were “ridiculous”.
DISY deputy Eleni Theocharous recently claimed not all high-risk group individuals had been vaccinated with the flu virus, which would have reduced the chance of the virus’ mutation. There is concern if the virus infects people already sick with the flu, it could mutate and jump the species barrier leading to a pandemic.
Theocharous also said a European Union directive said anti-viral drugs to cover the need of 30 per cent of the population was needed, not the five per cent the government had calculated for.
But Hadjianastasiou said: “We informed the public, including all high risk groups, to have the flu vaccine. Short of going into their homes and checking up on them, there is little we could do.”
She added: “As for the EU directive, countries were told to order as much as they thought would cover their needs. For some countries this was five per cent, others 10, others 15 and others none.”
