Technical Meeting in Rome on HPAI and Human H5N1 Infection

New Delhi, June 25 (UNI) A three-day international meeting to give an update on the current situation, trends and new developments of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in poultry and of H5N1 infection in humans will begin in Rome from June 27.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) organised conference will focus on how successful have the control and prevention campaigns been over the past three years.

Other issues to be viewed include the technical, socio-economic, institutional and resource constraints and opportunities for effective disease prevention and control? Issues like how can disease prevention and control strategies be improved? What is the current state of pandemic influenza preparedness in the context of H5N1 human infection will be discussed in the meeting.

Despite substantial progress in global efforts to bring the H5N1 avian influenza virus under control, bird flu continues to spread, potentially threatening the lives and livelihoods of people living and working around poultry.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has infected over 310 people and has cutted more than 190 since 2003. Over 250 million chickens had to be killed to stop the spread of the virus or they have died of the disease. Farmers and poultry producers have suffered losses amounting to billions of dollars.

Participants will be high-level officials working on HPAI in animal and human health from around 15 key countries covering all global regions; scientific experts and technical specialists on surveillance and epidemiology, diagnostic laboratories, veterinary and human health systems, farming systems and livelihoods, and representatives of international and regional technical agencies, the private sector, donors and non-governmental organisations.

The FAO, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with UNICEF and the office of the UN System Influenza Coordinator (UNSIC) are co-organising the meeting.

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