CARE Urges Congress and Administration To Provide More Funds For Bird Flu Prevention CARE is urging the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration to provide more funding to fight avian influenza at its source. Through programs aimed at preventing the spread of bird flu in Vietnam, CARE has found that the best way to fight the disease is to work at the community level where people are living closely with animals. "The president's plan, and actions taken in Congress advance important measures to protect Americans at home; however, if we are to keep the disease from arriving on U.S. shores we need to provide more resources to Asian countries where bird flu is already endemic," says Dr. Sanjay Sinho, health director for CARE. Out of a $7.1 billion budget, the president's plan calls for less than four percent ($251 million) to go to "international partnerships." However, substantial amounts of this are dedicated to protecting and evacuating U.S. personnel abroad. An amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill, contains only $60 million for global surveillance and there is no funding provided for prevention measures or incentives to increase the likelihood that farmers will report sickness among their flocks. This is insufficient. "An effective response to avian flu must include education, mobilizing communities and getting people to change their behavior, whether here at home or abroad" says Dr. Sinho. What is required is not only an emergency response, but also a plan that takes into account the critical need to strengthen the capacity of the public health and animal health services in the hardest hit countries and addresses the devastating economic impact avian flu has already had in Southeast Asia. Working with communities is the key to fighting bird flu. A recent CARE community survey in Vietnam found that farmers have many disincentives to report sick birds. Unless their concerns are addressed, they are unlikely to respond to broader government efforts to contain the spread of the virus. "Farmers don't want to report sick birds because the government will destroy their flocks and they will lose the extra money and food they are using to supplement their incomes and their diets," adds Barbara Wallace, CARE's Co-Director of the CARE-CDC Health Initiative. In Vietnam, the Government does not have the necessary funds to compensate farmers for the loss of their livestock, and when sick birds are reported, all flocks within a 30-mile radius are culled. Some farmers avoid reporting in order not to cause ill will with their neighbors who would also lose their source of income. Others sell sick birds instead of reporting them or use them for personal consumption, increasing the chances the virus will spread. Yet there are many simple, effective actions that communities can take to keep their livestock safe and keep the virus from spreading from livestock to humans. CARE has been working with farmers in Vietnam to change livestock practices – fencing off species, making sure livestock is not kept in houses, encouraging use of footbaths to ensure people coming on and off farms do not bring viruses with them and providing protective equipment and disinfectant. CARE also brings together village and municipal animal and public health agencies for training and coordination on the issue. CARE is educating the general public on bird flu through television public service announcements and by holding community events. These kinds of efforts are easy to incorporate into the ongoing programming of many community-based (CBOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs and CBOs, including CARE, are well-placed to scale up but it does not appear that they are being incorporated into the administration's plans or existing legislation. "It's vital that additional funds be included for global prevention, detection and containment and that these efforts take place at all levels, but particularly within communities," says Wallace. For more information, please see CARE's policy brief on avian influenza.
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Media Contacts:
Atlanta: Alina Labrada, CARE, labrada@care.org, (404) 979-9383, (404) 457-4644
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