Lords' panel urges improvement in flu contingency plan |
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Published
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Sat, 17 Dec 2005 08:05
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LONDON: A British parliamentary committee has said the country should review and improve its contingency plan to contain a possible bird flu epidemic and it should give better support to global initiatives in preventing a catastrophe.
The committee, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said Britain must contribute more to surveillance efforts being made globally to tackle the avian flu that has hit parts of Asia, and which has already killed 71 people since it was first detected in 2003.
Lord Broers, chairman of the committee, which has no legislative powers, said the pandemic looks likelier now than anytime else but it can still be prevented with coordinated international action. The government must put its weight behind U.N. agencies working in south east Asia, he said.
He wanted appointment of a person with cabinet rank to take responsibility for contingency planning.
The committee's reports said local health services could collapse under pressure and that the government should accelerate vaccine production and possibly even encourage manufacturers to invest in new technology.
The report found that a flu pandemic can cause food shortages and panic buying and wanted the food industry to be better prepared. It has also queried whether the antiviral drug Tamiflu should be used as a preventive measure in order to curb the spread of the virus, by which time a vaccine could be developed.
Meanwhile, the government has set up a new cabinet committee headed by health secretary Patricia Hewitt to deal with bird flu.
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