WELLINGTON, May 15 (Xinhua) — New Zealanders have been urged to strengthen their pandemic preparedness efforts in response to the evolving threat posed by the H5N1 virus, or bird flu.
Public health experts are issuing a call for action over the strain, which has sparked concerns globally as it continues to adapt and infect new hosts, including recent cases in cattle in the United States.
While the virus has not yet achieved human-to-human transmission, its ability to infect a broader range of animals raises alarms for potential future mutations, a new briefing of the New Zealand Public Health Communication Center said on Wednesday.
This development underscores the urgent need for New Zealand to review and enhance its pandemic response strategies, said the briefing, which recommended immediately updating the national pandemic plan to incorporate key learnings from past responses, such as timely access to testing, vaccines, antivirals, and infection prevention equipment like respirator-grade masks.
“We need to make sure our pandemic preparedness is up to scratch and ready for emerging threats such as H5N1,” said Prof. Michael Baker from the University of Otago, adding careful review of the pandemic plan, as well as cross-agency practice exercises, will provide a better chance of preventing and minimizing the impact of pandemics in New Zealand.
The briefing’s U.S.-based co-author Prof. Richard Webby, who is also director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, said the virus currently poses a low but increasing risk to human health.
“The infection of cows increases the exposure of humans to the virus and also provides an opportunity for the virus to evolve through replication in a mammal host,” Webby said, adding the recent case of infection in a dairy farm worker was the first time documenting of the virus jumping from a mammal to a human, which was a warning sign that this virus was continuing to evolve.
The authors of the briefing stressed the importance of adopting “One Health,” an integrated, unifying approach, to mitigate the risk of influenza emergence and spread across various populations, including poultry, livestock, wildlife, and humans.
Improving surveillance and early detection systems is central to identifying and swiftly responding to potential outbreaks, the briefing said, adding New Zealand is well-placed to strengthen its science capabilities and pandemic plans to manage the full spectrum of pandemic threats.
“We need to use this opportunity now as we never know the timing of the next pandemic,” Baker said.
