It is horrifying to learn from a news report that Thailand reported its first human fatality from Bird Flu in a year, on October 20, as the world mobilised to battle a virulent strain of the virus still multiplying in Asia and lately spreading to Europe.
The victim, who slaughtered and then ate a sick chicken, was the country's 13th victim, his death contributing immensely to fears that the virus is defying human efforts to contain its spread.
Viewed as potentially lethal to humans, having killed about 60 people in Asia since 2003, the H5N1 virus strain carries with it the fear of mutating, by acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that can make it highly infectious and lethal, thereby threatening to kill millions world-wide, as in the disastrous influenza pandemic of 1918.
Understandably, jolted by the latest tragedy, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said his country could not be declared a Bird Flu-free country, saying virus was in the air and the entire country could not be covered with umbrellas. However, he pointed out that they could move on and cope with the outbreak step by step.
Incidentally, it was about the same time when, in Pakistan, experts speaking at a seminar titled "Are we prepared for the Bird Flu Threat?" urged the authorities to brace for the threatened flu pandemic, as the virus knocking countries in vicinity - China, Russia, Mongolia - could seep in during the coming months.
The experts sought a comprehensive approach to avert any outbreak of Bird Flu in Pakistan, where the migratory birds, identified as possible carriers transmitting virus among the poultry birds are about to reach and rest at local woodlands.
It was strongly recommended that government should impose restriction on hunting of birds during this season, as these carriers could be cause of transmission, with possible chances of even infecting human beings.
Notably, two among the participants also stressed the need for implementing an Integrated Action Plan with stringent surveillance and a monitoring mechanism, enabling the country to efficiently handle any outbreak of the lethal infection.
Reference, in this regard, was also made to the existence 12 diagnostic labs being managed across the country by the Pakistan Agriculture Research Centre, which, reportedly, are capable of developing vaccines against the identified strain of the virus in two weeks time.
Ironically enough, according to a news report appearing only a day earlier, a high-level meeting, held under the chairmanship of Ismail Qureshi, Secretary, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock, to review the situation in Pakistan, was stated to have reiterated that the government had remained on the alert to meet the Bird Flu challenge.
The meeting was stated to have been told that Pakistan has developed a national avian influenza surveillance system, with the assistance of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. The system includes central avian influenza laboratory at National Agricultural Research Centre, in Islamabad, and 12 satellite laboratories across the country.
It was also pointed out that during the last year over 17,200 blood samples, 14,850 cloacal swabs, and 1,580 tissue samples were collected and processed in these laboratories, and that H-7 type of virus were reported in Pakistan, with no evidence of the presence of the H5N1 sero-type, that had infected humans in South East Asian countries.
However, the need for Pakistan remaining on guard was felt, in view of the spread of the Bird Flu virus in South East Asia, China, Russia, Central Asian Republics, Turkey and Romania. As such, reference was also made to Minfal's approval of a project for surveillance and control of avian influenza in Pakistan.
It seeks further to strengthen surveillance in the poultry and wild birds to monitor the type of avian influenza's presence. More to this, it provides for necessary measures for handling the outbreak of virus if it takes Pakistan in its stride. At what stage of development or implementation these schemes now are, is not known, pointing to complacency, against which the experts at the seminar had warned.
Some idea of complacency in meeting the threat of the dreaded pandemic maybe had from little evidence of any attempt at preventing its spread through imported birds. However, at long last, Pakistan too has deemed it expedient to impose a ban on poultry imports from 13 countries, following Bangladesh in quick steps.
The countries to which the ban applies are Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkey, Greece and Romania. However, at the same time, a Commerce Ministry official is reported to have revealed that the United Arab Emirates recently rejected a poultry shipment of 5,000 birds for non-production of certificate about the birds being free of disease.
It was also stated that it caused huge loss to the exporters, as the UAE authorities culled the birds. Notably, Saudi Arab and UAE, figure among the major importer of poultry from Pakistan, but the former has already imposed a ban.
All in all, having remained indifferent to the need of joining hands with countries fighting against the dreaded pandemic, time has come for Pakistan to brace for it with a strong will.