Castle Says Bush Pandemic Flue Plan is Missing Key Issue: Preventing Flu

Castle Says Bush Pandemic Flu Plan is Missing Key Issue: Preventing Flu

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Delaware Congressman Mike Castle today reacted to President Bush's Comprehensive National Strategy regarding avian influenza by raising concerns that the plan does not address a key factor -- prevention of the flu in the first place.

"I strongly support many of the initiatives President Bush laid out in his comprehensive national strategy today -- especially the stockpiling of vaccines and antivirals, the commitment to developing new vaccine cell culture technology, the creation and exercising of local and state response plans and the focus on medical personnel. However, I remain concerned that not enough attention is being paid to the prevention and spread of the H5N1 virus that has already appeared in Asia. I believe we need a stronger commitment to surveillance, reporting, transparency and cleaning up of live bird markets," Castle said.

"The global agriculture piece of this strategy is simply not strong enough. Of particular concern are countries such as Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam - all of which have poor record-keeping, large open-air bird markets, and a history of inadequate information sharing. They should adopt the excellent practices used on the Delmarva Peninsula and other places in the United States of America. We must work through the World Health Organization to convince these countries to act for the greater good. International cooperation is our best hope for detecting an outbreak before it becomes a pandemic ," Castle said.

http://www.house.gov/castle/pr_05_avianinfluenza.html