EU to give Asia €29m to fight bird flu

The European Union will give €29.6m to help Asia fight bird flu, the health commissioner said today.

Markos Kyprianou is in Vietnam on a 10-day tour through south-east Asia to discuss efforts to contain the deadly strain of bird flu that has recently spread from Asia to Europe.

“The EU should have reacted more quickly to help south-east Asia to tackle the problem,” Kyprianou said during talks in Hanoi with Vietnamese agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat.

“It’s better late than never. … The EU is interested in co-operating with Asia to solve the problem.”

Kyprianou, who arrived in Vietnam yesterday for a three-day visit, plans to discuss measures being taken by each country to contain the spread of the H5N1 strain of bird flu. He will also visit Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

Since late 2003, bird flu has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and jumped from birds to humans. At least 62 people have died.

Most of the human deaths have been traced to close contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and possibly spark a global pandemic.

The H5N1 strain has recently been discovered in Turkey, Romania and Russia.

Kyprianou said he had come to find out what the EU could do to help the region fight bird flu.

“We can find common actions for the problem,” he said, adding that countries in the region should concentrate on medium and long-term measures.

Bird flu has killed or forced the cull of more than 100 million birds in Asia. Vietnam has been hardest hit, with more than 45 million birds dead, and 41 human deaths.