27 June 2005
Papers reveal NZ unprepared for bird flu pandemic
New Zealand is unprepared for a possible bird flu pandemic, papers obtained under the Official Information Act reveal,
Green Health spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.
"With a team of international experts in Vietnam warning that the virus could be mutating into form that could trigger a
human pandemic, our lack of preparedness leaves us vulnerable," Ms Kedgley said.
"We need to follow Australia and Europe by pulling out all the stops to prepare our country for a bird flu outbreak.
"We are lagging way behind Australia, which has published a detailed emergency plan on how to ensure essential services
are maintained during a pandemic and health professionals can be kept safe. Australia has worked out plans to designate
influenza hospitals and fever clinics and develop registers of healthcare and emergency workers receiving anti-virals
and educational resources for all GPs.
"We need similarly detailed plans here in New Zealand, which the public can have confidence in.
"The European Union has also set up a 24 hour monitoring system, with laboratories across Europe able to analyse flu
virus strains, but we have no similar system in place. Indeed, while Europe's surveillance systems are being
strengthened with the imminent threat of bird flu, funding for human health surveillance has continued to decline in New
Zealand.
The documents obtained by Ms Kedgley under the Official Information Act warn that the capacity of the health sector to
respond would be "quickly overwhelmed" during a pandemic.
The papers reveal New Zealand has:
- Insufficient laboratory surveillance to provide an early warning system or rapidly detect the pandemic strain in New
Zealand;
- Low levels of training for health professionals;
- Inadequate levels of infection control to provide a safe environment for patients seeking care or staff providing it;
- Insufficient high containment laboratory facilities to test safely for the pandemic strain;
- Lack of trained and equipped ambulance offices;
- Lack of emergency communication capability.
"They say there has been very little planning in DHBs and the primary health sector generally for a pandemic and that
few DHBs devote sufficient resource to emergency planning. Given that doctors, nurses and the primary health sector
generally would be at the frontline for treating people in any pandemic, this is a real concern.
"While the first stocks of new anti-viral drugs have arrived and more are on order, we only have enough to treat 1.7
percent of the population. And the original 20.000 anti-viral treatments in stockpile passed their expiry date in
January this year.
"How are we going to ration a limited supply of anti-viral medication? Who would be given priority? And where are our
plans for isolating, treating and transporting large numbers of highly infectious people, or coping with overcrowded and
understaffed hospitals?
"The papers warn that 'critical clinical supplies' of protective masks, gowns and intravenous fluids, would be quickly
exhausted in a pandemic and difficult to replace.
"While the Government has recently allocated $6 million to District Health Boards to increase their supplies of personal
protective equipment, it has budgeted for an 8-12 week pandemic, when it could be much longer," Ms Kedgley said.
ENDS