'Learn to live with bird flu,' says health chief

Europeans must learn to live with avian flu as the disease has become so widespread in wild birds that it would be around for some time, the European Union’s health chief said on Friday.

The 25-nation bloc had adequate measures to contain the disease when it occurred, and would eventually eliminate it. But this would take time, Markos Kyprianou told a news conference during an informal meeting of EU health ministers.

“Given that the virus is everywhere now, it’s a problem that will stay for some time,” Kyprianou said.

“Both us and the European public have to learn to live with this problem, without any panic. We have the measures, we have the legislation, we have the experience to deal with similar problems. We have done so in the past, we can deal with it now and in the future,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, France confirmed it had found the H5 bird flu virus at a farm where thousands of turkeys had died and was testing if the virus was in fact the deadly H5N1 strain. If so, it would be the first confirmed case of H5N1 on an EU farm.

“There is no reason to panic ... even if we have cases in farmed or domestic poultry,” Kyprianou said.

The virus, which is endemic in birds in parts of Asia, is spreading deeper into Europe, with infections reported in wild birds in a number of countries. However, the EU has not yet reported any human victims of the virus.

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Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but has killed more than 90 people since late 2003. Victims contract the virus through close contact with infected birds.

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Experts fear it is only a matter of time before it changes into a form that passes easily between humans, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

Kyprianou said he would kick off a debate among European health ministers within the next two weeks about whether they wanted to create an EU-wide stockpile of antiviral drugs for emergencies like a sudden outbreak of bird flu among humans.

“The member states could of course decide that they don’t want to create a European-wide stockpile but that each one of them is creating their own national stockpiles.

“I see advantages in both (approaches) but it’s really up to the member states to decide,” Kyprianou added.