China must battle bird flu by educating health-care workers and its hundreds of millions of farmers about the virus that threatens devastating consequences for the economy and human health, health experts said today.
They said Beijing had improved its management of the virus, but convincing local officials to follow the government's lead would be difficult in a country where millions of uncaged birds are kept and local residents are often poorly educated.
"The gap between the increased central government commitment and the lack of willingness and capacity at the local level is going to be the biggest challenge China faces in preparing for the next disease outbreak," said Yanzhong Huang, a public health expert at the John C. Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations.
Since mid-October, more than 20 outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu have been recorded in China. Two human deaths have been confirmed.
The frequency of the outbreaks has galvanised the government into action, and the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation both say Beijing does a good job of quickly culling, disinfecting and quarantining affected areas.
China has culled 20 million birds and announced plans to vaccinate billions more against the virus scientists fear could mutate into a form that could be passed easily from person to person, sparking a global pandemic.
But China, with the world's biggest poultry population, faces a huge challenge curbing the spread of the virus in a country with a vast interior where millions of backyard birds roam free. "We don't believe there is any active effort to cover up or not report things. It's simply the enormous challenges that China faces with such a huge poultry population and many rural, remote communities," said Julie Hall, Coordinator of Epidemic Alert and Response at the WHO in China.
China's Health Minister, Gao Qiang, has admitted that ill-equipped local doctors may be unable to detect H5N1. Experts said the effectiveness of preventive measures also depended on public education, as well as transparency from a government long accustomed to keeping information from its people.
China made a show of sacking top officials after a cover-up of the SARS virus in 2003, raising hopes for more openness and accountability. But while it has reported bird flu outbreaks promptly to international organisations, Beijing, perhaps fearful of sparking panic, had been less open in telling its own people.