BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza adopted a Beijing Declaration here Wednesday. Following is the full text of the declaration.

    Beijing Declaration At the International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza

    17-18 January 2006, Beijing

    The International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza was convened in Beijing, China on 17-18 January 2006 under the co-sponsorship of the Government of the People's Republic of China, the European Commission and the World Bank and in close coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The conference was attended by representatives from more than 100 countries around the world and representatives of international technical and financing agencies, organizations, the private sector and civil society.

    The conference was organized to promote, mobilize, and help coordinate financial support from the donor community for the national, regional and global response to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and to support efforts at all levels to prepare for a possible human influenza pandemic. The pledging conference drew on recommendations previously developed by the international community including the Resolution of Enhancing Capacity-building in Global Public Health adopted at the 60th Session of UN General Assembly and the FAO/OIE/WHO/World Bank-sponsored International Meeting on Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic Preparedness held in Geneva on 7-9 November, 2005.

    The world is faced with a re-emerging disease, HPAI, which like SARS and HIV/AIDS respects no national boundaries. HPAI has now spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe with the prospect that the disease might also spread to the Americas, Africa and elsewhere. Human casualties have already been confirmed and there is a real possibility that further genetic changes in the virus strain might result in sustained human-to-human transmission and ahuman influenza pandemic.

    If not detected, reported promptly and contained effectively, a pandemic could potentially kill millions and cause catastrophic consequences in the areas of global economic growth, trade, and security. HPAI is threatening the livelihood of hundreds of millions of poor livestock farmers and jeopardizing smallholder entrepreneurship and commercial poultry production. Therefore, we must take coordinated, rapid and decisive actions to prevent, prepare for and control HPAI so as to prevent a human pandemic, firstly in respect to animal health as this is the primary source of the risk. This would include a change in animal production and management system. At the same time we must take measures to prepare for a possible human pandemic, so that we will have the means to contain or at least control the pandemic should it occur. It is also critical to address medium- and long-term issues related to animal and public health sectors.

    International technical agencies such as FAO, WHO, and OIE have been playing a pivotal role in informing the response by developing global strategies to control HPAI and prevent a human influenza pandemic. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for coordinating the UN's response to avian and pandemic influenza has made a substantial contribution in ensuring that all UN agencies are working maximally to contribute to this effort. Others, such as the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza (IPAPI), the European Commission and the World Bank, have been active in mobilizing the donor community and partner countries to adopt a more strategic and coordinated approach. International and regional initiatives by the United States, Japan, Canada, APEC, ASEAN, the African Union, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank and the MERCOSUR, as well as the recent Kunming Ministerial Conference for Avian Influenza Control Cooperation, the East Asia Summit, ACMECS and the Health Ministers' Meeting of Andean Region, all provide encouraging evidence of a coordinated international response. We applaud and support all these efforts.

    However, the challenge remains daunting. We must take further coordinated actions to strengthen disease surveillance and diagnostics, develop much-needed capacity in human and veterinary health systems, increase public awareness and address social and economic impacts, particularly in countries that are at especially high risk of infection and that have the greatest resource needs. It is imperative that the international community should take all possible actions to prevent the emergence of a possible human influenza pandemic and to prepare all sectors for possible pandemic. We must take these actions now and together.

    WE, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONFERENCE:

    1. Commit ourselves to ensuring effective development and implementation of integrated national action plans within the framework of WHO/FAO/OIE global strategies guided by political leadership at the highest level, to mobilizing resources in our countries and to drawing upon government, civil society and the private sector to effect a coordinated response. In the context of our respective national plans, we agree to take vigorous prevention, mitigation, emergency preparedness, and rapid response measures in the short term together with actions over the longer term to prevent and control the spread of HPAI in the poultry and related industries and prevent human exposure to the infected birds.

    2. Note with particular satisfaction the World Health Assembly's adoption of the International Health Regulations in May, 2005; emphasize that the implementation of the Regulations must reflect the real threats to international public health in the 21st century, including a possible influenza-related pandemic; and call for the earliest possible voluntary compliance with applicable articles in advance of the June 2007 entry into force of the new Regulations.

    3. Subscribe to a long-term strategic partnership between the international community and the countries currently affected or at risk in which adequate and prompt financial and technical support is mobilized to complement the efforts by countries and regions, particularly developing countries. Areas of emphasis will include both immediate and longer-term measures. In the short term, priority will be given to helping countries contain, control and eliminate the virus in affected poultry and prepare for a possible pandemic. Priorities will be given to improving surveillance and detection capabilities, increasing public awareness and fostering community resilience, promoting vaccine research and development, developing stockpiles of human anti-viral, assisting with response and containment measures in the event of an outbreak and mitigating social, psychological and economic impacts on the population. In the longer-term, priority will be given to developing capacity and infrastructure in animal and public health sectors, as well as undertaking complementary reforms in related sectors at all times that there is a need. The international community should conduct analysis and provide detailed guidance on a range of important issues - such as the appropriate structure for compensation systems, stockpile, monitoring and evaluation - that respond to individual country circumstances.

    4. Commit to sharing information and relevant biological materials related to HPAI and other novel influenza strains in our countries in a rapid and timely fashion, and to ensuring the development, dissemination and application of good practices of HPAI surveillance, control, and pandemic influenza preparedness incompliance with existing OIE standards on veterinary services and the newly adopted WHO International Health Regulations.

    5. Commit to increasing cooperation on global research and development of safe and effective animal and human vaccines and antiviral medicines for humans, and to promoting affordable access for all who need them.

    6. Commit to evaluating the results and the impact of our national pandemic influenza preparedness and action plans periodically, reviewing and updating them as necessary and updating the global HPAI control strategy and human pandemic preparedness plans by taking advantage of the expertise and the existing technical networks established by UN, WHO, FAO, OIE and other relevant organizations and groups.

    Finally, we welcome the commitments made at the conference for the coordination with the participation of recipient countries of the financial contributions and pledges from international financial institutions and organizations, private foundations, development banks and donor countries. We see this as critical to facilitating the routing of pledged funds to priorities in integrated country action plans, as well as to regional and global actors that are leading the control and prevention efforts against HPAI and pandemic threat. We believe that these funds should be delivered and utilized on a prompt basis in accordance with the principles of aid effectiveness established in the Paris Declaration. Enditem ¡¡