More Needs To Be Done

David Nabarro went on to stress that speed was of the essence

A very senior United Nations expert on the bird flu said that much more needed to be done to get into a position where it is possible to be safe from a full on bird flu pandemic. He said it was true that many nations had invested millions of pounds preparing themselves but it would still take years for most places to get into a position where they could minimise the impact of the deadly virus.

The expert David Nabarro who works as a United Nations systems coordinator for bird flu has said that there were still many areas of the virus which were uncharted and that scientists did not fully understand. He went on to note that it was not a question of ‘if’ the bird flu virus would hit the world but just a question of ‘when’. He said that they couldn’t say where it would start from, how severe the virus would be and how long the pandemic would continue for. 

He warned also that the bird flu virus would have a huge economic impact on the world as millions of people would not be able to go to work, factories would have to shut down and people would be advised to stay indoors.

David Nabarro went on to stress that speed was of the essence and that the quicker that governments reacted to bird flu outbreaks the more likely they were to contain them. It was essential that bird flu medications such as Tamiflu as well as protective equipment for all health workers was dispatched immediately and that special teams were trained to deal with all situations.

The United Nations World Health Organisation has said that the most effective medication to protect yourself from the bird flu virus is the Tamiflu drug made by the company Roche.