From the Balkans to the Baltic Sea, the whole of Europe is on alert at the prospect of a pandemic of avian influenza following the discovery of a strain of bird flu in countries like Romania, Greece and Russia earlier this month.

Across the Atlantic, the Bush Administration in Washington is also busy implementing measures to avoid the attack of the deadly disease while the country's law enforcers are complaining that these preparations are not happening fast enough.

In Asia, countries such as Singapore have mapped out multi-pronged strategies to get prepared for a possible outbreak of a human flu pandemic.

The question we must ask ourselves is, is China ready?

It seems that the government has been making preparations. A national anti-flu group has been set up, a four colour-coded alert system was also established, and the ministries of health and agriculture are joining hands to co-ordinate the fight against the virus.

However, to get the world's most populous country - which is also the biggest producer of poultry - fully prepared, more action is probably required.

One urgent task is to raise national vigilance to, in particular the public's awareness of, the impending danger.

At a time when news of bird flu is hitting the headlines globally on a daily basis, reports in domestic media are somewhat limited. Our newspapers and TV stations may have simply become numb to the issue since reports of the virus throughout Asia have been flooding in since 2003.

In restaurants in Beijing, undercooked eggs are still served to customers, while the Hong Kong government has cautioned its residents time and again that they must cook eggs thoroughly before consumption.

In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) and experts from home and abroad have repeatedly issued warnings about the likelihood of a human flu pandemic. Researchers fear that if the bird flu virus mutates into a form that is capable of passing from person to person, it would spread across the world too quickly for a suitable vaccine to be developed and distributed.

The possibility of a mutation occurring seems to be unavoidable, making the outbreak of human avian influenza just a matter of time.

David Nabarro, the United Nations co-ordinator for avian and human influenza, warns that a flu pandemic linked to bird flu could kill 5-150 million people, according to reports from the BBC.

Over the past two years in Asia, cases where the virus has mutated to effect humans mainly through contact with sick fowl have been identified where more than 60 people are reported to have died.

Last Tuesday, European Union foreign ministers declared the spread of bird flu as a "global threat."

In China, where one-quarter of the world's chickens are produced, the situation is grave, too.

Last year, some of the nation's provinces reported bird flu cases. In May, migratory birds were found dead in Northwest China's Qinghaihu Lake having been infected by the H5N1 bird flu virus, which further deepens worries for a possible cross-border spread of the virus.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that bird flu cases were confirmed in farms in Inner Mongolia but the situation had been controlled.

However, that will undoubtedly not be the last case. Experts say the potential for the pandemic to happen in China is great.

Poultry raising methods in many regions of China are somewhat backward. Sixty per cent of poultry are still domesticated, making it difficult to contain the spread of virus. The close proximity of people and animals in southern China is also widely regarded as a breeding ground for the virus.

Moreover, there is frequent circulation and shipment of livestock between regions.

In many of the nation's millions of free markets, live poultry are traded without enough quarantine restrictions.

A more fatal problem might also be the country's limited ability to produce vaccines.

WHO has repeatedly urged countries to stockpile enough antiviral drugs for 25 per cent of their populations in the case of a human pandemic occurring.

China, however, has only nine companies producing flu vaccines. Their production capacity is limited to 10 million a year, according to Outlook magazine.

In addition, China's medical infrastructure remains inadequate to cope with such a large-scale flu virus, especially in remote and rural areas.

Fortunately, since the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003, the Chinese Government has learned how to react swiftly to outbreaks of a public health crisis. It has also greatly improved its transparency, pre-emptive response and efficiency in drafting plans to handle such issues.

Such plans, however, cannot be well implemented unless the whole nation is motivated to help, since self-protection is an indispensable part in containing the spread of a flu virus.

An important task is to ensure that everyone realizes that containing influenza is not only a government responsibility, but also their own.

They should develop a basic and scientific knowledge about bird flu and know what to do in face of the real danger.

The public should also be urged to cultivate good hygiene habits, such as not spitting, wearing gauze masks in illness and washing hands frequently, experts say, because such habits are effective ways to stop the spread of the virus.

Chinese people paid great attention to improving hygiene practice during the 2003 SARS crisis.

But many of them have failed to stick to these habits now that life is back to normal. With a new crisis approaching, it is time to remind people to readopt and maintain good hygiene habits.

(China Daily 10/22/2005 page4)