Pandemic Preparedness for Avian Influenza:
Frequently Asked Questions
I. Avian Influenza
A. What is avian influenza?
Avian influenza, or "bird flu," is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions, crossed the species barrier to infect humans.
In domestic poultry, infection with avian influenza viruses causes two main forms of disease, distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence. The so-called "low pathogenic" form commonly causes only mild symptoms (ruffled feathers, a drop in egg production) and may easily go undetected. The highly pathogenic form is far more dramatic. It spreads very rapidly through poultry flocks, causes disease affecting multiple internal organs, and has a mortality rate that can approach 100 percent, often within 48 hours.
(Source: World Health Organization)
B. What is the current situation regarding avian influenza?
Visit the Consular Affairs Bureau's website for the most recent update provided from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The WHO provides the most recent information on the cumulative number of confirmed human cases and deaths. Please refer to the WHO website for this detailed data:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/index.html
C. What is the World Health Organization's current risk assessment of the situation?
The risk of pandemic influenza is serious. With the H5N1 virus now firmly entrenched in large parts of Asia, the risk that more human cases will occur persists. Each additional human case gives the virus an opportunity to improve its transmissibility in humans, and thus to develop into a pandemic strain.
The recent spread of the virus to poultry and wild birds in new areas further broadens opportunities for human cases to occur. While neither the timing nor the severity of the next pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a pandemic will occur has increased.
(Source: World Health Organization)
For more detailed information on the current global situation regarding avian influenza, please refer to the World Health Organization's Web site, which includes up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions on the topic: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html#drugs2.
D. Do vaccines exist to prevent the contraction of avian influenza?
Vaccines effective against a pandemic virus are not yet available. Vaccines are produced each year for seasonal influenza but will not protect against pandemic influenza. Although a vaccine against the H5N1 virus is under development in several countries, no vaccine is ready for commercial production and no vaccines are expected to be widely available until several months after the start of a pandemic.
(Source: World Health Organization)
For more detailed information on vaccine development to prevent the contraction of avian influenza, please refer to the World Health Organization's Web site, which includes up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions on the topic: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html#drugs2.
E. What is Tamiflu, and what does it do?
Two drugs (in the neuraminidase inhibitors class), oseltamivir (commercially known as Tamiflu) and zanamivir (commercially known as Relenza) can reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by seasonal influenza. The efficacy of the neuraminidase inhibitors depends on their administration within 48 hours after symptom onset. For cases of human infection with H5N1, the drugs may improve prospects of survival, if administered early, but clinical data are limited. The H5N1 virus is expected to be susceptible to the neuraminidase inhibitors.
(Source: World Health Organization)
For more detailed information on drugs available for treatment of avian influenza, please refer to the World Health Organization's Web site, which includes up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions on the topic: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html#drugs2.
II. Pandemic Preparedness and Response
F. What is the government of Canada doing to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic?
Canada has a pandemic plan, negotiated amongst the federal, provincial and territorial governments, evergreen in nature, which has been cited by the World Health Organization as a model for other countries. A framework for a broader response is now being developed which would recognize the links between animal health and human health and that the impacts of a pandemic would go beyond the public health sphere. Numerous departments and agencies are involved in the Government of Canada=s efforts to deal with a pandemic. The government's budget announcement in May 2006 included the provision of $460 million ($1 billion over five years) to further improve Canada's pandemic preparedness.
G. Where can I get details on these plans?
The Government of Canada launched a new web portal on 27 March 2006, found at www.pandemicinfluenza.gc.ca which will be a one-stop place for information about avian influenza, seasonal influenza and pandemic influenza.
H. What is the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade doing to plan for a pandemic?
Recognizing the large number of Canadians who are serving abroad with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and other Government of Canada departments and agencies, and the 2.5 million Canadians who live, work or travel abroad at any given time, we are taking the threat of a pandemic very seriously.
A senior level Pandemic Preparedness committee has been meeting on a weekly basis since late 2005 to prepare planning materials for missions and Headquarters.
Our missions in some 110 countries have received detailed planning templates to help them prepare their own plans related to their host countries. We have recently provided a complementary template to our Headquarters staff in Ottawa.
I. If a pandemic strikes and large numbers of your staff are off sick, or staying home, what services will you be able to offer the public?
Our divisions have prepared detailed business continuity plans, tailored to the effects of a possible pandemic, which identify critical services that must be maintained.
J. What is a critical service, and can you give me a couple of examples?
It is a service whose compromise in terms of availability or integrity would result in a high degree of injury to the health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians, or to the efficient functioning of the Government of Canada. Those services range from such things as assisting Canadians incarcerated abroad to coordinating Canadian humanitarian responses to international disasters with the UN and other international organizations.
K. What is Canada doing internationally to prevent and/or prepare for a potential human pandemic of avian or other influenza?
In April 2006, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) announced a $1 million project, in which researchers from five Asian countries are tackling the question of whether to vaccinate birds against avian flu. Public health officials from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand will take part in the study. For full details, visit the IDRC’s website at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-96359-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
Canada has committed $15 million over five years to building public health capacity in Asia on emerging infectious diseases. The Canada Asia Regional Emerging Infectious Disease (CAREID) initiative in Southeast Asia and China will improve surveillance and outbreak investigation and response, strengthen laboratory systems, increase preparedness to respond to infectious disease emergencies, and promote more effective, gender sensitive communication, public outreach and advocacy. Canada's efforts will complement and advance the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Preparedness Plan, and the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, recently announced by the United States.
On October 24 to 25, 2005, Canada convened an international meeting of ministers of health to facilitate international collaboration on pandemic influenza preparedness and to initiate dialogue on key issues that will contribute to the work of relevant global institutions. Some 30 countries representing all WHO regions attended, including countries directly affected by the avian flu outbreak. The WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, the World Bank and the ASEAN Secretariat were also represented. The outcomes of the meeting were outlined in an Ottawa Statement, which identifies four priority policy areas for immediate attention:
- ensuring a multi-sectoral approach, beginning with the animal health and human health sectors, that would underlie global efforts toward coordinated pandemic planning;
- strengthening the capacity for surveillance, early detection and diagnosis of, timely communication about, and rapid response to a range of infectious diseases;
- developing a global approach to vaccine and antiviral policy for research, development, increased production capacity, access and distribution;
- coordinating risk communications.
At the Ottawa meeting, ministers also endorsed two principles for effective global cooperation: full transparency between countries and institutions involved in responding to the risk of pandemic influenza; and full support to the leading role of multilateral institutions.
For more information on the outcomes of the Ottawa ministerial meeting, including the Ottawa Statement that was issued after the meeting and Prime Minister Paul Martin's address, please refer to the Health Canada Web site: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/intactiv/pandem-flu/index_e.html.
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