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Dr Cox and English Club members

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Dr Cox and English Club members

What is Avian Influenza? Expert Nancy Cox explains...
       - By Kelly Daniel

BRAZZAVILLE - There are few topics as complicated to explain these days as avian influenza and the threat the disease poses to African countries like Republic of the Congo.  But not for the members of Embassy Brazzaville’s Villa Washington English Club, which recently had the chance to query one of the world’s leading influenza experts, Nancy Cox.

Dr. Cox, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO), visited Brazzaville as part of an avian influenza research team working with to prepare and train for potential bird flu outbreaks.  It was Dr. Cox’s second visit to Congo, and second trip to Africa.  She spoke with the English Club following a week of meetings with field researchers, WHO officials and medical staff.

“You have incredible questions,” Dr. Cox complimented the English Club members, whose questions included detailed queries about the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu, the possibilities of a vaccine, and bird flu’s importance compared to other diseases such as HIV/AIDS.  “I thought people would be shy and not want to ask questions.”

Avian influenza, or bird flu, has killed more than 60 percent of people infected, a far higher death rate than other diseases such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).  That high death ratio is one reason there is so much attention on bird flu worldwide, although Dr. Cox acknowledged that other diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and malaria, have affected and killed millions more people.  Avian influenza has so far stricken 381 people across the globe, mostly in Asia, and killed 240 of those patients.  At the same time, more than 250 million birds, mostly chickens raised by farmers across developing nations, have been culled, a striking blow to economies across the globe, Dr. Cox said.  There has been no reported outbreak of bird flu in Congo so far, although the disease has been found in other African nations.

Thus, CDC and the WHO have formed rapid response teams of medical doctors, researchers and health practitioners who can quickly go to the scene of any avian influenza outbreak.  In Congo, those teams are beginning training, with partners in the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

Time magazine named Dr. Cox one of its “100 Most Influential People of the Year” in 2006 and Newsweek magazine called her one of the “15 People who Make America Great,” also in 2006.  She has served as WHO director for the Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza since 1992 and as director of CDC’s Influenza Division, National Centers for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases since 2006.

“Just as SARS was contained, and we were lucky with that, we hope that if we are prepared enough and if we have enough training and people are aware, we hope that we may be able to actually stop a pandemic before it spreads far,” Dr. Cox told the Villa Washington audience. “Maybe this is only a dream, but we have to try.”