Bird flu reports may be low

PARIS -- A number of countries in the throes of serious bird flu outbreaks are underreporting the extent of the problem, generally because they do not have the money, veterinary expertise, or health systems to track the disease adequately in animals, international health officials said yesterday.

``We think countries might be underreporting, but they do not do it deliberately," said Christianne Bruschke, head of the bird flu task force at the World Organization for Animal Health, at the end of a two-day conference on the disease.

She specifically cited African nations as giving inadequate reports, as well as China and Indonesia -- two vast countries battling extensive but poorly defined avian influenza problems.

Indonesia's decentralized government system has made controlling the disease particularly difficult, specialists from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said, allowing the virus to skip from one village to the next.

While some countries meticulously report every last outbreak to the World Organization for Animal Health, which tracks the disease, there has been no reporting from the Indonesian government since April 24, even though scientists presume that outbreaks crop up constantly.

``In their decentralized system, information does not always get back to Jakarta," said Juan Lubroth a senior veterinarian at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. ``The information in Jakarta doesn't reflect what's happening on the ground."

The current H5N1 avian influenza virus is an animal virus and does not readily infect humans.

But 48 people in Indonesia have now been diagnosed with the disease and 36 have died, nearly half of them in the past month -- a sign that bird flu is widespread in the country.

Humans who are stricken with avian influenza almost always have a history of extremely close contact with sick birds.

In Turkey and parts of China, human deaths from avian influenza have alerted health authorities to previously unknown and unreported outbreaks among animals.

Early and accurate reporting is crucial for preventing the spread of the disease, since control measures like culling and farm quarantines can then be put into effect.

Health officials yesterday did not blame countries for their deficiencies in reporting, noting that veterinary services were seriously under financed in much of the world, and needed an infusion of international funds and expertise.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has spent more than $20 million providing assistance for detection and control . It has been allocated $71 million , but now estimates it will need $308 million over the next three years to control the spread of the disease, said Dr. Joseph Domenech, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's chief veterinarian.