Irish among most ignorant in EU about bird flu
Only half of respondents knew the correct answers to a series of questions about how to avoid catching the virus — the second lowest in the EU.
But almost a quarter of the population say they are eating less poultry, which is one of the highest proportions in the EU.
Less than half of those questioned said they trusted the health authorities.
The head of the EU’s Health and Consumer Protection department Robert Madelin said it was a matter of when, and not if, the pandemic strikes.
While the risk of people getting the virus from fowl is low at present, scientists say up to seven million people would die in a pandemic if the virus mutated to pass between humans.
However, Mr Madelin warned forecasting was very difficult and current predictions could be “wildly wrong”.
More than half of those who contract the virus die. This year so far there have been 228 confirmed human cases, of which 130 people died.
Mr Madelin was scathing of the member states that blocked a plan to set up a central bank of anti-virals.
These would be rushed to whatever EU country had the first outbreak of avian flu in humans if they did not have a sufficient stock themselves.
“We are forfeiting the opportunity to contain the outbreak and gain time for the member states to enhance their services,” he said.
The head of the union’s Centre for Disease Control Zsuzsanna Jakab said efforts to contain outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain among domestic poultry in Europe had been successful.
“H5N1 is a very low risk to public health in the European Union,” said Ms Jakab.
Those at most risk were people who kept domestic poultry and vets, she added.
“It’s important to get out the message to those people who keep poultry in their backyards,” she said.
