World pledges $1.9 bln to fight bird flu. in the largest single fundraising effort ever to combat a virus that doctors fear could kill millions if it mutates.
CASE CLOSED! We are going to read less and less about brid flu now that the goal has been achieved: Suck money.
World pledges $1.9 bln to fight bird flu.
Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:03 PM GMT
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - International donors pledged almost $2 billion to help the global bird flu fight on Wednesday, in the largest single fundraising effort ever to combat a virus that doctors fear could kill millions if it mutates.
The World Bank had hoped the donors' conference would raise at least $1.2 billion.
"This is not charity. This is not just solidarity. This is self-defence," EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou told a news conference.
Of the $1.9 billion pledged, about $900 million would be in the form of loans, and the rest in grants, he added.
"The amount asked for is small compared to the cost of a pandemic we are not ready for," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the conference earlier in a video address.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed at least 79 people in six countries and has now spread to Turkey, claiming lives there. A sense of crisis has grown around the world as the virus continues to kill people and infect birds, despite efforts to control it.
But what experts fear most is the virus mutating into a form that spreads easily among humans, who have no immunity.
The World Bank itself has estimated that a pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion.
The United States pledged about $334 million, saying in a statement the money would be mainly in the form of grants and technical assistance. The total EU pledge is about $260 million.
World Bank vice president Jim Adams said there was a recognition that if dealt with promptly bird flu could be managed.
Of the total pledged, he said between $100 million and $200 million would go into a trust fund to be managed by the World Bank. Some of the rest would be managed bilaterally -- between donors and targets identified as being in need of aid.
He said more than half the $1.9 billion was new commitments, not mentioned in previous aid programmes.
"My sense is that a large percentage of the money, certainly over 50 percent, is new money," he told Reuters. "Now the challenge is to move forward quickly."
There was no specific timeframe for when the funds would have to be used, though a three-year period was envisioned.
Analysts welcomed the meeting.
"What's most important, is that the meeting raised the realisation that bird flu cannot just be seen as a medical matter but a security issue," said Mely Caballero-Anthony of the Institute of Strategic and Defense Studies in Singapore.
"It cuts across all facets of life."
SPREADING
As the donors met, Iraq said it was testing for a human case of the virus for the first time after a 14-year-old girl died of a fever in the Kurdish region close to the Turkish and Iranian borders.
An Indonesian toddler died on Tuesday. The body was being tested for bird flu after the virus was found to have killed his 13-year-old sister. Turkey has confirmed its 21st human case, underscoring the urgent need to raise money to help improve veterinary and health services in poor countries.
"If we are lucky and the pandemic doesn't hit us for the next six months, I think the world would be reasonably well-prepared to cope," wrote Michael Richardson, senior research fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
"Once this money is spent, the question is how quickly can the necessary people be trained -- the health workers, the veterinarians, the animal health people on the ground," he added.
THIS 1.9BN IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!!! MORE WILL COME!!!
The World Bank has offered a $500 million line of credit toward its fund-raising target and its president, Paul Wolfowitz, said more resources were urgently needed.
Host China, hit by about 30 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry last year and at least five human deaths since late 2005, said it would give $10 million.
The Food and Agriculture Organization said money was needed before the virus became a pandemic, adding that the chance of human outbreaks could be reduced if the disease was handled properly in chickens and ducks.
"Fighting the avian influenza virus in animals ... is the most effective and the most cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating to cause a human flu pandemic," FAO deputy director-general David Harcharik told the conference.
(Additional reporting by Mia Shanley in Singapore) |
