Improving cooperation between human and veterinary medicine

Source: Sebastian Kaulitzki, Fotolia.com

In their final declaration under German direction, the 342 delegates agreed on further steps to prevent and control avian and pandemic influenza. In doing so, cooperation at national and international level is to be intensified in accordance with the "One Health"-principle with the participation of both sectors – human medicine and veterinary medicine. In addition, the international community undertook to continue to support in particular developing countries in their efforts to set up structures to control bird flu and/or the pandemic more effectively.

In 2009, five years after the outbreak of bird flu, the world faced the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. The global control of bird flu has helped to set up important structures which were also able to be used in the control of H1N1:

With support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Germany was able to set up laboratory capacities and animal health services in Laos and Cambodia and to promote the corresponding legal framework conditions. Moreover, a paradigm shift in animal disease control has been initiated according to which socio-economic parameters and the inclusion of those affected must be taken into consideration when planning control measures.

Germany supports a project in Indonesian primary schools which teaches children how to safely deal with animals. In addition, an international expert group ("International Animal Health Team") has been established within the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, providing scientific support for the prevention and monitoring of animal diseases in third countries. The most recent action taken by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection is to enter into cooperation with the international influenza database GISAID (www.gisaid.org). Scientists enter data on influenza viruses in humans and animals into this database, which is accessible to the public.

This year’s conference in Hanoi is the first international Ministerial Conference after last year’s occurrence of the pandemic influenza H1N1. The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection has supported the conference with Euro 10,000. The next meeting is to take place in Mexico in 2011.