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Official responses to the rise of H5N1 have varied widely: the city of Hong Kong (under the direction of Margaret Chan, who now heads the World Health Organization's avian influenza program) moved quickly to cull its bird population; on the other hand, it appears that the Chinese government (repeating its behavior during the 2003 SARS outbreak) was slow to acknowledge it had an H5N1 problem at all, and may have failed to report human and animal cases and deaths. The responses of other nations have fallen along a spectrum betwen the two.
H5N1 recognizes no national boundaries (see the Interactive Map for a closer look into the spread of the disease), so information exchange between nations may be one of the only effective tools in slowing viral exchange. Unfortunately the WHO reports that only 40 of its 192 member nations have prepared guidelines establishing pandemic preparedness.
Those countries that do have plans in place still face the difficult project of preparing for a pandemic that, should it happen, would likely overwhelm the hospitals of even the wealthiest nations. Governments are attempting to stockpile what vaccines and antivirals do exist, ongoing research is achieving some useful results, and H5N1 pandemic preparedness was a subject of discussion at the 2005 United Nations World Summit.
Still, more can be done immediately on the animal management front. Pictured are Vietnamese public health workers disinfecting a chicken house following the culling of sick birds, a common response to the discovery of H5N1 outbreaks, along with the monitoring of bird transport and the disinfecting of vehicles carrying birds. Many nations have also begun vaccinating their chicken populations (a number of tested animal-only vaccines agains H5 influenzas, including H5N1, now exist).
Credit: Thirteen/WNET/Blue Ice Pictures, Inc.
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Briefing
Read a briefing on the dangers posed by avian influeza and the challenges nations must overcome in order to fight against it.
Interactive Map
Explore how avian flu is spreading across Asia.
Filmmaker Notes
Go behind the scenes with producer Micah Fink.
Info-Graphic
Learn how chemical and biological weapons work.
Interactive Challenge
Test your knowledge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
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