The Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB) said yesterday it will establish a war fund of US$38 million (Bt1.5 billion) to help Asian countries combat bird-flu attacks.

The grant - part of the $470 million already pledged in contributions - was approved this week to provide quick-response measures to control and contain threats of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus strain in member countries, said Indu Bhushan, head of the ADB's avian influenza taskforce.

The 30-month project will seek to prevent and control infection at the source, predominantly birds, and prepare the region for a possible pandemic, he said.

The funds, which will be used to pay for experts, equipment, supplies and drugs, will be distributed through existing channels with the coordination of Asean, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

As the latest country in the region to report bird flu earlier this week, Burma is likely to be the first to receive assistance from the fund.

An FAO team arrived in Burma yesterday after receiving permission from the military government to visit affected areas in Mandalay, said He Changchui, the organisation's regional representative. The team's findings will shed light on the kind of support Burma needs and the most appropriate channel for the assistance, Bhushan said.

Azerbaijan was also under consideration for help due to its inability to stand on its own feet in the face of avian flu, he said. The new fund will help mitigate situations in places such as Azerbaijan, where a large amount of slow-moving assistance had yet to arrive.

Indonesia is another country where the H5N1 virus continues to infect both people and poultry. The country's lack of an efficient compensation system for poultry breeders was the main obstacle to its effort to contain the virus, said Azmi Mat Akhir, a special assistant to the secretary-general of Asean.

His greatest concern was that there would come a time when Indonesians would grow complacent towards the bird-flu threat so the chance of the outbreak developing into a full-blown pandemic was large, he said.

With the ADB's support, the WHO will reinforce its work in five directions: reducing human exposure to H5N1; beefing up early-warning systems; intensifying rapid-containment operations; building capacity to cope with a pandemic; and coordinating global scientific research and development on bird flu, which remains poorly understood.

"The danger for all countries is set at the level of performance of the worst prepared country," said Dr William Aldis, the WHO representative to Thailand.

Japan was shipping about 500,000 boxes of Tamiflu for Asian countries but it remained undecided which country should stockpile the drug, he said.

So far, 177 cases of bird flu in humans have been reported with 98 deaths, which is an extremely high rate, he said.

In Beijing in January, countries and development partners committed $1.9 billion to fight avian influenza, of which ADB's pledge was about $470 million.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation