The bird flu pandemic has caused widespread panic in the world. This time the Western hemisphere is feeling the impact of this other kind of terror-the terror of avian flu. The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nation (UN)'s health wing, has said that it would not lower its global pandemic alert from its present level at phase 3.

However, despite the alert, WHO has not linked the alert to any immediate threat of the deadly strain of avian flu virus infecting humans. But Europe is in a state of panic, especially after the deadly virus was found among the wild fowls and farm birds in Turkey and Romania.

The Europeans and the North Americans are undoubtedly very health conscious people. That is why they are destroying their poultry birds in large numbers for fear of contracting the deadly disease. The virus named H5N1 is spreading fast among the wild and farm fowls in new areas. As one may recall on this score, a similar case of avian flu pandemic occurred in 2003.

At that time the Southeast Asian countries were the home to the disease. Tens of thousands of farm birds had to be destroyed in the aftermath of the attack by the flu in the Southeast Asian region. Thailand was one of those countries that bore the brunt of the pandemic. The poultry farms of Bangladesh used to import chickens, parent and grandparent birds from Thailand. After the incidence of bird flu in that region, Bangladesh stopped import of bird flu from Thailand or other Southeast Asian countries. On the other hand, it chose a country from Europe, France, as a safe source of parent poultry birds. Now even France, which is a European country and is in the forefront of the geographical shift of the bird flu pandemic, has been struck out of the list of Bangladesh's source of parent poultry stock. So, the local poultry industry runs the risk of being thrown into a crisis.

That is because Bangladesh is yet to become self-sufficient in producing parent and grandparent fowls. As a consequence, this situation is going to seriously affect the production of broiler chickens in the country. Bangladesh cannot even replenish its stock of parent fowls by importing those from India, as it is also among the forbidden list of countries susceptible to avian flu pandemic.

But what is the situation of Bangladesh itself amidst this global panic about bird flu virus? Is Bangladesh safe from this virus? So far as the reports of infection of this disease among the farm or the wild fowls are concerned, mercifully, Bangladesh is still free from the dangerous bird disease.

This has been possible due to the role of the media and the consumer's awareness. Credit also goes to the owners of the poultry industries in the country, for they did not lose any time in banning the import of chickens from the countries in the suspect list. As a result, Bangladesh could remain an island of relative safety within an ocean of insecurity and panic over the avian flu epidemic.

However, in 2003 there was a state of alarm even in Bangladesh. The alarm was triggered mainly by developments in Southeast Asia. The poultry industry of the entire region was under grave threat. As European and North American countries constituted the major patrons of the chicken meat of Southeast Asian origin, the oversensitive Western consumers stopped buying fowl meat from this region.

To save their thriving poultry industry, the politicians and government leaders had gone out of their way to show that in spite of the alarm-much of which had hardly any real foundation-the meat was safe. Even the Thai prime minister ate chicken meat publicly to demonstrate that Thai poultry meat was safe for human consumption. In Bangladesh, owners of poultry farms also spared no effort to dispel any unnecessary fear of local poultry meat in the wake of the transcontinental alarm.

But what is the truth about the recent panic surrounding the avian flu that has been spreading like wildfire in Europe? The WHO has given some hint about the nature and seriousness of the danger from the avian flu virus. The root of the fear is that the H5N1 virus may jump the inter-species barrier and infect humans. WHO statement about the pandemic says goes like this: "… all evidence to date indicates that the H5N1 virus does not spread easily from birds to infect humans."

However, a deadly pathogenic strain of the flu virus has been found in the samples from the wild fowls infected in Turkey. This development has been behind the latest avian flu alert in Europe. It is, however, not that that this particular strain of the virus is not fatal if contracted by humans. It has proved in some cases that this particular strain of avian flu is resistant to certain drugs and vaccines to treat infections from flu.

The European Union, in response to the reports from Turkey and Romania that the deadly virus has been found in some wild fowls in those countries, has mounted strong monitoring and control of wild migratory birds and been checking entry of banned poultry products from those countries into Europe. The French foreign minister Douste-Blazy has said that everything would be done to ensure that the virus does not mutate and that the public is reassured.

So what is all this alert about? The avian flu virus, once it undergoes genetic mutation, may become dangerous for humans. Otherwise, there is no reason to become hysterical about the danger that the avian flue poses.
This new type of mutant flu virus of avian origin that attacks humans aside, normal flu pandemic is nothing new in the world. In 1967, there occurred a worldwide outbreak of flu.

There was another outbreak before the last big one. But before those two flu attacks, a real tragedy struck humanity in 1918, when some 50 million people died of this disease. So, even normal flu could turn into an epidemic in the past. Fatality record of the new type flu originating from birds has a record of killing some 60 people in Asia.

In the face of this global alarm what should countries like Bangladesh do? The first thing is to increase the awareness level of the people and take precautionary measures so that poultry birds of unknown origin may not enter Bangladesh. Extreme care needs to be taken in this respect to protect the local poultry industry against any unsubstantiated reports or rumour over the issue.

The government is learnt to have formed a committee and that precautionary measures would be taken according to the recommendations of this committee. What the committee is or will be doing is anyone's guess. From their past experience, people in general have hardly any reason to be enthusiastic about such committees.

Notwithstanding that, the government would do well to keep itself updated about the measures being taken in this respect by the European, North American and even our neighbouring countries in the South And Southeast Asia and inform the people accordingly from time to time. And what must be strictly controlled is wild rumour going the rounds and pressing the panic button.

Disclaimer: All information shown here are from different sources. The SDNP is not responsible for any inaccuracy in them.