FAO: bird flu will take up to 10 years to clean up

Bird flu is entrenched in Asia and it will take up to a decade to rid the region of the deadly virus and declare humans, animals and meat safe from infection, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

More than $100 million would be spent over the next three years on improving the detection and reporting of outbreaks, and in combating the virus, three UN health bodies said at the launch of a joint action plan to stop the spread of bird flu.

"The disease is endemic in Asia and it will be here for long," Joseph Domenech, head of the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), told a news conference.

That quote comes from a FAO news conference cited by Reuters. It is certainly good to see the UN ackowledge the problem and start making an effort to have better monitorization of the flu.

The article makes a few country speciffic flu forecasts:

Chronically infected Vietnam would need up to 6 years to significantly reduce effects of the H5N1 -- the fatal avian flu virus -- and another 4 years to resume its poultry trade.

China and Indonesia, which have no human cases of H5N1 but lots of bird and wildlife infections, will also require up to a decade to be free of the disease, the UN bodies estimated.

But less-affected nations such as Laos and Cambodia could bounce back in three years.

It is unclear what these timelines are based on. We know that migratory birds carry the flu so it seems to me that as long as Indonesia, China and Vietnam will continue to have problems with the virus it is unlikely any country in the area will be "safe".

Addendum: Effect Measure comments on the proposed $102 million, arguing that it is mere chicken feed.