• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Public health authorities: Bird flu unchecked in Burma

Respiratory Care Weekly, March 29, 2006

A report under review says that Burma concealed a bird flu outbreak in animals and let the disease spread unchecked for too long. In addition, other public health policies have let AIDS and malaria epidemics continue in the country, according to a report under review for publication in the Public Library of Science Medicine. Among its claims, the report says that 70% of anti-malarial pills sold in Burma contain substandard amounts of active ingredients, which increases the risk of new drug-resistant strains developing among the country's 43 million people.

"In our report, we document how the ruling government's policies have restricted nearly all aid and allowed serious infectious diseases to spread unchecked," says Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, researcher, director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Human Rights, and associate professor in the epidemiology department. "With the global spread of bird flu, there is a fear that if a human form of [bird flu virus] H5N1 were to take hold in Burma, it could potentially spread unchecked for weeks or months before anyone knew about it. Uncontrolled spread of any disease . . . poses a serious health threat to Burma's populous neighbors, like China and India, as well as the rest of the world."

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive