Hawaii is among areas in North America best prepared for any flu pandemic but some top level health officials are now saying the likelihood of that happening may be more remote than ever.
But even if bird flu does come to the US via a migratory bird, the virus is unlikely to make the inroads it has in less developed countries, according to Anthony Fauci, a top administrator at the National Institutes of Health.
“The surveillance is going to be so intense that it is unlikely to make the inroads in poultry or in people that it has in less developed countries,” he told the Associated Press in an interview.
Bird flu has killed 109 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization. It’s also killed or forced the slaughter of more than 200 million chickens, ducks, turkeys and other domestic fowl in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Mr Fauci pointed out that US poultry farmers generally keep their birds isolated from contact with wild birds, unlike in other countries.
Meanwhile, Hawaii has apparently gone beyond any other state to prepare for any outbreak.
That state is particularly susceptible to any outbreak because it is isolated and receives 20,000 fly-in visitors each day.
The state’s airport plan calls for a nurse to take a swab from a potentially infected passenger on any plane, or at the gate or inside the airport itself. If travelers show any signs of a pandemic virus, authorities plan to quarantine the entire aircraft.
Report by David Wilkening
Report by David Wilkening
