Taiwan can help global efforts

The World Health Organization (WHO) admits that H5N1 could be the next pandemic. It is one of 16 varieties of avian influenza or bird flu. So far, it is the only one that has shown any ability to directly pass from one human to another. It has spread from Southeast Asia to China, Russia and Europe. The H5 strain of avian flu has hit Canada, in British Columbia and Prince Edward Islands, but it is not the dangerous variety of bird flu.

The deadly H5N1 form of bird flu has split into two distinct strains, a development that could make it harder to develop vaccines to stop the spread of the disease. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director general, pointed out that 2006 was the worst year yet for human fatalities of bird flu. There were 161 deaths in 2006 out of 267 confirmed cases, according to the agency’s data, bringing the death rate to 70 percent. It was 60 percent in each of the previous three years. Killing millions of birds has not eliminated the threat to people from avian flu.

WHO’s Executive Board opened its meeting this year with a warning about bird flu. As long as the virus continues to circulate among birds, the threat of a human pandemic will persist. The agency said the world is still years away from effectively controlling the illness in the agricultural sector.

Because of the widening spread of the disease, WHO is investing heavily in building what it hopes will be a seamless global disease prevention and control network. The involvement of each and every member of all countries in the world should be elicited to counter imminent threats of a possible pandemic that could become a global crisis if left unchecked. However, WHO continues to leave out Taiwan from its membership despite the fact that the nation has valuable lessons to share on how it has successfully kept the disease outside of its borders. Dr. Wu Shuh-min, president of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, claims that the WHO has refused Taiwan’s applications to attend avian flu-related international conferences, thus preventing meaningful sharing of valuable experience in disease prevention. Taiwan’s Immigration reports that an average of 1,200 people travel between Taiwan and China each day, and an average of 1,600 travel between Taiwan and the United States daily. Hence, outbreaks of infectious diseases in China can easily spread to America and other countries within hours.

This leaves a gaping hole in the envisioned seamless global health network for disease control and prevention especially that the WHO has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China that requires the WHO to obtain China’s permission before providing information to Taiwan and involving it in technical conferences. We hope this political innuendo does not unduly jeopardize global cooperative efforts to maintain health and security among the peoples of the world.