BMJ  2005;331:922 (22 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.922-a

News

European centre plays down threat from avian influenza

Stockholm

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The new centre responsible for assessing the risk from communicable diseases in the European Union tried this week to play down the fears sparked by the recent arrival of H5N1 avian influenza in Turkey and Romania.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, the director of the Stockholm based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), said, "Our opinion is [that] the risk to public health is very small, very limited, at present, except for those dealing directly with infected animals."

She added, "The problem is that avian influenza and pandemic preparedness are mixed up in people's minds. They think they are interlinked. You have to separate them and make the distinction very clear."

Her comments came just days after European Union laboratory experts had confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus in samples taken from the Danube delta and as European health ministers prepared to meet on 20 October to take stock of . . . [Full text of this article]

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