# 1217
On a continent where thousands die each day from tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition, it's hard for any African nation to devote the kind of resources needed to monitor and contain avian flu.
While the number of human infections reported there has been low, the fear is that so many people die each day without ever seeing a doctor that cases may be occurring and we never hear about them.
This from Sci-DevNet.
Africa 'cannot meet WHO bird flu priorities'
2 November 2007
Source: The Lancet Infectious DiseasesAfrica has little ability to achieve any of the priorities identified by the WHO to fight avian influenza, warn Folorunso O. Fasina, Shahn P. Bisschop and Robert G. Webster in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The African strain of H5N1 has acquired "troubling" properties such as respiratory rather than faecal transmission in poultry and a mutation associated with increased spread of disease in mammals, including humans.
Moreover, the probability of human infection on the continent is increased by inefficient diagnosis, denial of outbreaks, inter-ethnic crises, politicisation of the issue, and poor reporting, surveillance and communication of risks.
Control remains problematic because of ineffective border controls and overtaxed health-care systems, as well as inadequate biosecurity.
The crowding of poultry farms and burgeoning live poultry markets promote the rapid spread of disease, as do high-risk conditions and practices, such as the slaughter of sick birds in homes.
Only 40 Africans are known to have been infected. But because of Africa's limited capacity to cope with a pandemic, this still represents a grave danger, warn the authors.
They call for each African nation to realistically assess its status, conduct regular active surveillance and be more forthcoming with data.
