AUSTRALIA is completely unprepared to deal with a bird flu pandemic and its plans to cope with an outbreak are seriously flawed, a top scientist has warned.

He also attacked plans to quarantine people suspected of having been in contact with bird flu even if they are not showing symptoms.

"The Government is not prepared at all. The strategies they put in place are flawed, completely wrong," Dr Laver told a security conference in Canberra.

"Quarantine won't work. People arriving from overseas who have been recently infected will be shedding virus like crazy.

"They won't know they are infected. They'll show no symptoms. How is the Government proposing to to find these people?

"Quarantine will not keep flu-affected people out of Australia."

The Government is considering vaccinating all Australians and already has stockpiled 3.95 million doses of anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.

Dr Laver said vaccines developed now to combat bird flu could prove ineffective by the time an outbreak occurred because the virus could change substantially.

The only protection people would have from bird flu would be anti-viral drugs.

Dr Laver said the Government's plan to hand out the drugs to essential services workers first was wrong and a waste of valuable medicine.

Instead, he said, the drugs should be made available through pharmacists to anyone diagnosed with bird flu.

This is cache, read story here

Posted in login to post comments