World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan urged governments on Tuesday to share their responsibility in dealing with the threat of a flu pandemic.

"A pandemic will, by its very nature, reach every corner of the earth, and it will do so within a matter of months," Chan told a WHO intergovernmental meeting on pandemic influenza preparedness.

"This shared vulnerability calls for shared responsibility, and collective action to fulfill that responsibility. In terms of the risk of disease, we really are all in the same boat," she said.

According to Chan, world preparedness for a possible pandemic has moved forward on multiple fronts, including the capacity to manufacture influenza vaccines, but more needs to be done.

"Countries need to brace themselves for a situation where up to 25 percent of the workforce may be ill at a given time. They have to brace themselves for a possible meltdown of basic municipal services and a slowdown of economic activity," she said.

"And this situation will be occurring globally. As I said, the stakes are high and the responsibility resting on our shoulders is great," she added.

The WHO chief stressed that she fully support any effort that leads to greater and more equitable access to pandemic vaccines.

"In terms of preparedness, access to vaccines is almost certainly the greatest concern in countries that lack their own manufacturing capacity," she said.

Chan also highlighted the importance of virus-sharing, which "serves public health in ways that go beyond the development of pandemic vaccines."

"Above all, the sharing of viruses is the foundation of risk assessment. The analysis and comparison of viruses give us the first clues, the first early warning, that the virus may be evolving in a dangerous way," she said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2007)