The chief UN official for avian and human influenza, Dr David Nabarro, on Monday praised Burma, along with a host of countries where bird flu had struck this year, for their response to the virus. Working with the World Health Organization and World Organization of Animal Health, Burma initiated a poultry culling program in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions following a bird flu outbreak in March, a response that Nabarro said had proven effective. “Myanmar [Burmese] authorities seem to have had better cooperation with the outside world on this issue than they’ve had on any other issue,” The Associated Press reported him as saying. “It seems the government is poised so that if there are further outbreaks, the government can deal with them quite quickly.”

Nabarro recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia and Australia, the UN said. During this year’s outbreak, Burma created quarantine zones around infection sites and has since conducted several pandemic preparedness exercises. But basic health infrastructure, including laboratories, is still considered inadequate in the event of human cases, a situation that has yet to hit the country. Last month, the World Bank said it was ready to consider funding to boost Burma’s capacity to deal with the possibility of future outbreaks. Burma is one of a number of countries in the region-along with Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand-that has recorded cases of the virus this year. Indonesia has alone been responsible for 43 of the 73 human deaths in 2006 and remains a “very great concern,” Nabarro said. Although the disease had not yet spread across the globe as widely as feared, Nabarro called for continued vigilance, particularly against the possibility of a major human pandemic.