TWO NEWS RELEASES GIVING A GREEN VIEW ON BIRD FLU

17th October 2005

1. BIRD FLU: MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE MISSED

The country's most senior medical adviser, Sir Liam Donaldson has demanded that all doctors draw up emergency plans to distribute 14 million doses of drugs to combat bird flu, following news of confirmed cases in Romania - the first cases in Europe(i). His advice to wash hands to ward of flu has been welcomed by Greens but they claim the most important piece of advice has not been communicated.

Dr Richard Lawson, a Green party health spokesperson, based in Congresbury, Somerset said: "Sir Liam Donaldson, is right to advise us to wash our hands to ward off the flu. But he has not communicated another, more important piece of advice: stay at home with your flu. It is vital that people learn not to go out and mix with others if they have any illness that makes them feel weak, hot and cold. This it is the most efficient way of reducing the prevalence of a virus."

Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson, said: "One serious problem with staying at home is that many bosses assume that an ill employee is a malingerer until proven otherwise. This leads to sick employees spreading their viruses at work, on their way to work and then when management see they are ill, in doctors' waiting rooms as they go for their sickness certificates. This is a crazy system. If the avian flu virus gains the capacity to pass from human to human, the world could face a significant threat. We will do better if we are already in the habit of staying home with our influenza symptoms. This would be a far-reaching policy change, but one based on impeccable medical logic (iii)."

Philip Booth said: "We need a concerted campaign to educate the population how to recognise a flu-like upper respiratory tract infection, how to manage it at home without necessarily physically contacting a doctor, how to stay home from work when ill, and how to recognise symptoms that indicate complications that need treatment. This campaign must start now, so that people are ready with the new strategy if a serious pandemic breaks out."

Dr Richard Lawson has also written to the Minister of Health suggesting that air passengers from infected areas should be monitored (iv). His suggestion is that airliner cabin air filters should be tested at the end of each leg of the flight and quarantine measures taken if necessary. He also notes hygiene standards in aircraft toilets should be vastly improved.


2. GREENS QUESTION ROLE OF ANIMAL WELFARE IN CAUSING AVIAN FLU

Time for free trade agreements to include welfare regulations

In the recent frenetic bustle of scientific response to avian flu, painfully simple measures long advocated by the Green Party for both bird and human well-being have been overlooked.

Martin Whiteside, the Green party candidate for Stroud in the last election, said: "The Green Party shares the concern of the government and vets with regard to avian flu and the danger that this may pose to humans. However, while migratory birds carry the virus, we should bear in mind the origins of this virus - in the overcrowded poultry farms and markets of the Far East - and its root cause, the supply of ever cheaper poultry, much of which is exported to the West (v)."

Martin Whiteside, who is also a District Councillor, continued: "Not only are these farming methods inhumane in their treatment of the birds but they can now be seen to threaten human health. An elimination of the overcrowded and inhumane conditions of 'factory farming' would greatly limit the likelihood of such spread. Also, the unnecessary transport of live birds to slaughterhouses far from the farm of origin needs to end. We need to tighten up on animal welfare in all countries; such a move would be hampered by free trade rules. The time is surely ripe for welfare regulations to be written in to free trade agreements."

Martin Whiteside said: "Preparations for the result of an outbreak of avian flu should not supersede measures that would lessen the likelihood of such an outbreak - prevention rather than cure is surely the logical route to take."

Gloucestershire Greens earlier this year called on the UK Government to back calls for an EU ban on the import of wild birds as pets to reduce the risk of sparking a flu epidemic (vi).



Contact details:
- Martin Whiteside: 01453 757874
www.glosgreenparty.org.uk
- Dr Richard Lawson: 01934 835140
www.greenhealth.org.uk
- Philip Booth: 01453 755451
www.glosgreenparty.org.uk

Notes:

(i) See Guardian (16/10/05): 'GPs told: prepare for 14 million flu victims':
 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1593359,00.html

(ii) See The Independent (13/1005): 'Government advice to beat bird flu: Wash your hands more frequently':
 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article319132.ece
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4291124.stm

(iii) Additional comments by Dr Richard Lawson:

Vaccination and anti-viral medication can protect some people, but the first and the most cost-effective line of defence, is isolation of cases and quarantine of contacts. The WHO successfully contained the SARS virus in 2003 using these techniques. They will need to be reviewed, amplified and extended if we are to contain an influenza-type virus. Some might even argue that it would be impossible to do, and therefore should not be attempted.

Nevertheless, some measures might lessen the prevalence. If an outbreak occurs, and spreads (primarily via air travel) to Britain, its prevalence can be significantly reduced if the population is already familiar with a new national policy centered on the point that if anyone has flu-like illness, they should stay away from work, and other public places.

There are sound reasons for resting a viral illness. I explain to my patients with flu-like illnesses that they feel tired and fatigued because their energy is being diverted to their defence system. They should therefore not try to divert blood away from their immune and back into their legs and brain by going to work. They should give their immune system a chance to do its job properly. By going to work, they will not work energetically or well, they will be ill for longer, and they will spread it to their workmates.

Isolation of cases cannot eliminate epidemics, because sometimes the infection is passed on by people who feel perfectly well. This is not a reason to abandon isolation, since shedding certainly continues after symptoms appear, and isolation can therefore reduce the prevalence of the virus and the overall severity of the epidemic. Isolation involves much social inconvenience, and will be politically unpopular, unless it is correctly understood, but that is a political challenge that Government must meet. It also runs counter to an ingrained management assumption that people should come to work when they are suffering viral illness, and that those who stay home are malingerers until proved otherwise. These assumptions can and must be changed, in view of the magnitude of the threat that we face.

(iv) If an outbreak occurs, air passengers from the infected area should be monitored. Infra red detectors to pick out people with raised core temperatures at airports have a place, but are imperfect since a person who is incubating the virus may be shedding it, but may not have a raised temperature. On the other hand, it would be feasible to change airliner cabin air filters at the end of each leg of the flight. PCR tests could identify aircraft with cabin air carrying the virus within hours. Passengers and crew from an infected flight would have to be ready to be quarantined - inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as a flu pandemic resulting from introduction of the virus to our country. In addition, hygiene standards in aircraft toilets should be vastly improved. Greens have asked the Minister of Health to evaluate this proposal.
Air travel threat:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4184496.stm
 http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-bird14.html

(v) While migratory birds carry the virus, the greatest threat of an outbreak is among highly-susceptible domestic poultry. The rapidly growing birds, common in today's intensive poultry farms, take 42 days from birth to slaughter and spend much of their lives on urine-soaked litter and weakened by the use of antibiotics. Overcrowded conditions at farms and live poultry markets facilitate the rapid spread of the virus, resulting in the need for mass culling and an increased potential for human infection. The Green Party opposes live animal transport in general and believes that small local or mobile slaughterhouses are not only better for animal welfare but also prevent the spreading of diseases over long distances, as we saw in the Foot & Mouth epidemic. We would also address the 'Great Food Swap' issue, where we import and export the same food product, often to the detriment of our own producers. As an example Britain imported 61,400 tonnes of poultry meat from the Netherlands in the same year that it exported 33,100 tonnes of poultry meat to the Netherlands.

See also: 'Spreading Diseases Like Bird Flu & Mad Cow Disease':
 http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/cheapmeat100105.cfm

(vi) See:  http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=475&Itemid=2