Aust, Singapore to lead pandemic test
ABC News Online
Last Update: Thursday, May 4, 2006. 9:48pm (AEST)
Australia and Singapore will lead an international exercise in June to test communications preparedness for a possible bird flu pandemic, officials said on Thursday.
The exercise, the first of its kind and involving major economies of the Asia-Pacific region, would test how countries would stay connected in a pandemic or other major disaster such as tsunamis and earthquakes.
"It will give them an opportunity to respond to a credible real-life scenario that allows them to test communications across the region," Australian official Helena Studdert said on the sidelines of a Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bird flu conference in Vietnam's central city of Danang.
The June 7 and 8 round-the-clock exercise to accommodate different time zones would also test reaction to possible human-to-human spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu and international arrangements for emergencies, according to a document presented on the first day of the three-day meeting.
Scientists fear the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed 113 people out of 205 infections in nine countries since 2003, could mutate into a form that jumps easily between people and start a global flu pandemic.
Pandemic response
Australian officials said the "APEC Pandemic Response Exercise" would be centred in Canberra and be co-organised by Singapore.
Six APEC members - Japan, Chile, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia - have agreed to take on primary roles, but all members were interested in taking part, officials said.
"You definitely won't see people running around in masks," Australian official, Neil Head.
"It is very important that we do something that involves people at their own desks as they would normally be and in their own time zone."
APEC says its 21 members account for 47 per cent of all world trade and includes 2.6 billion people.
Several of its members in South-East Asia have been hit by human deaths and economic losses from bird flu, including conference host Vietnam.
- Reuters
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