NEW DELHI: India is ready to take steps to prevent the spread of avian influenza, should it occur, David Nabarro, United Nations System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, said.

Talking to reporters during his one-day visit to the capital on Tuesday, he said it was not just a question of having laboratory back-up for surveillance or a stockpile of medicines, but the overall preparedness to face any pandemic. "I think India is ready for this and has developed the capacity to stamp out the disease," he said.

Dr. Nabarro has visited Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia to help governments and the private sector to intensify their preparedness. "I am in India to ensure that when bird flu hits, India will be prepared and the situation does not get out of control as in some other countries," he said.

Hoping that the medicines stocked across the world would not be required, he said if the pandemic did not strike, the medicines would be possibly used to cure seasonal influenza. On stockpiling of vaccines, he said it was not possible as the H5N1 virus was constantly mutating and it would be difficult to ascertain the exact strain that would affect any given region. "It would take about six months to prepare 500 million doses of vaccine once the exact virus strain was known, but this is only about a fraction of the quantity required to control a pandemic," he said.

Welcoming the efforts being made by some pharmaceutical companies in preparing "mock" vaccines (a basic influenza vaccine that could be upgraded to treat specific strain), he said an "all powerful flu vaccine" being prepared by some scientists could be a major breakthrough in biotechnology and helpful in preventing bird flu.

Drawing attention to the economic impact of the pandemic, he said it was approximately estimated to be $10 billion — millions of chicken heads dead, livelihoods of small poultry farmers and a significant impact on large private sector dependent on poultry. Suggesting a compensation scheme for small farmers whose chickens were culled, he said this was necessary to ensure that the farmers came forward with the cases instead of concealing the disease for the fear of economic losses. The U.N. has suggested between $1.2 and $1.5 per bird culled.

Appealing to people not to kill or poison wild birds, he said the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme have already launched a campaign to detect H5N1 virus in wild and migratory birds for a better understanding of the mode of transmission. "If it is confirmed that migratory birds are the main source of transmission, it will be a dangerous scenario. Then, we would have to live with the reality that pandemic influenza is stalking us."

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