New Bird Flu Strain Throws Spotlight on Asia's Preparedness

A new strain of bird flu known as H10-N8 has emerged in China with three human deaths since December. The new strain adds to scientists' concerns over the rapid spread of the H7N9 variant which has infected about 300 people and killed a quarter of them since March last year. It points to the potential of Asia to be the hotspot for new infectious diseases.

Karon Snowdon from Radio Australia interviewed Peter Horby, Senior Clinical Research Fellow with the Oxford University Research Unit in Vietnam about this.

It's been a bit over a decade since the major outbreak of SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome surprised health authorities. It started in Southern China which was slow to report the problem. It spread to other countries before the World Health Organisation issued a global alert.

The UN says an estimated 75 per cent of new infectious diseases in humans come from animals. The three people infected with the new H10-N8 strain all had contact with live poultry. Dr Peter Horby is the Senior Clinical Research Fellow with the Oxford University Research Unit in Vietnam. He says monitoring the new strain is crucial.

“Yes, we know that the pandemic virus, it often come from animal sources, so we know that the previous influenza viruses came either from bird sources or pig sources, so any new animal influenza viruses that affect humans we have to look at very carefully.”

Other regions have been sources of new disease outbreaks too, but the population density of East and South East Asia lead some to describe it as the "hotspot" for serious new infectious diseases.

The close proximity of livestock and people, the nature of markets and now cheap travel and visa free movements between ASEAN states mean a major problem remains.

Even the region's increasing urbanisation can either be an advantage or a problem.

That's despite impressive improvements in health and the lessons learnt since SARS regarding monitoring and response.

Dr Horby urges there be no letting up in building capacity to deal with biological threats.

“Once a virus becomes transmitted from person-to-person, is likely to spread very quickly.”

Q. Has the region's ability in the surveillance and response areas improved since the days of SARS?

“Yes, absolutely. It's markedly better, you only have to look at the difference from SARS to the emergence of H7N9 in China. It's been a complete transformation really. With H7N9 influenza, the Chinese have been incredibly quick to identify the problem, to investigate it, to inform regional and global authorities and also to cooperate with other countries in investigating the problem, monitoring it and reporting it etc. So they've been huge improvements.”

“Of course, there's still room for improvement always and so the poorer countries with large populations are the ones where we'll be focusing our support.”

Q: And in that sense, international financial support is still pretty important?

“It is, absolutely. Internationally, there's expertise and a national level of expertise and how you detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases. But to transfer that expertise and the infrastructure needed does always require financial support.”