The APEC Ministerial Meeting on Avian and Influenza Pandemics kicked off here Friday, with discussions focusing on assessment of the socioeconomic impact of bird flu pandemics and anti-disease activities, and an action plan on prevention and response to pandemics.

"There is a stark truth that all the benefits obtained from APEC's activities of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation as well as economic and technical cooperation would be rendered meaningless if the life of our people, both as businessmen and consumers, could not be protected," Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, Tran Trong Toan, said at the one-day meeting's opening ceremony.

"That is why the prevention and fight against avian influenza (AI) pandemic and other transmitted diseases such as SARS, HIV/AIDS have always been a high priority on the human security agenda of APEC," he added.

He noted challenges to the fight against avian and influenza pandemics may come from all the three arenas -- domestic, regional and global, as the threat from the pandemic has now already assumed an international scope and character.

"In the domestic arena, there may be a need to enforce the preventing, containing and combating avian and influenza pandemics through development, approval and implementation of multi-sectoral, domestic influenza pandemic preparedness plans consistent with WHO recommendations," he said.

In the regional arena, there may be a need to beef up cooperation among APEC economies via sharing, in a timely and transparent manner, of epidemiological data, laboratory samples and viral isolates, he said, adding that there may also be a need to "strengthen global cooperation and coordination with all countries, international community and institutions such as special health and donor organizations."

According to the director, the international cooperation may include the surveillance and monitoring of the diseases in line with international rules, the development of mechanisms to increase production capacity and enhance the pharmaceutical delivery so that there can be favorable and equitable access to vaccines and anti-viral medicines worldwide, the early implementation from 2007 of the revised international health regulations to report the infectious diseases, and mobilizing and effective utilization of material and financial resources to battle bird flu outbreaks among fowls and humans.

At the ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Minister Vu Khoan said that bird flu has quickly spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and is likely to hit America, and that an effective prevention can never be achieved without global cooperation. "It is now time for us to formulate an action plan to translate this important initiative into reality," he said.

"It is our view that the decisive factor in preventing and combating the pandemic is to raise public awareness of its dangers and preventive measures.. International cooperation is an indispensable factor," he stated.

Some 190 representatives, including 7 health and agriculture ministers and 13 deputy ministers from the 21 APEC members, the APEC's Secretariat and five international organizations are attending the ministerial meeting.

The delegates are expected to discuss and show political commitments to developing plans for continuity of operations and other actions to mitigate socioeconomic impact of a pandemic with a focus on such topics as cross sectoral cooperation, communication, trade and private sector.

They are also scheduled to review and touch upon ongoing projects and programs to tackle AI pandemics in the APEC region, implementation of recommendations from various regional and international events on AI pandemics control, mobilization and allocation of 1.9 billion U.S. dollars pledged at the Beijing Ministerial Conference, mobilization of international support to AI control action plan of Vietnam, and a plan action on prevention and response to AI pandemics in the region.

AI has spread quickly in many areas of the world since late 2003. It was detected in 15 countries and regions in the 2003-2005 period, and 30 additional ones in the first five months of 2005.

According to the latest report of the World Health Organization, by the end of April, there have been 204 cases of humans infected with AI virus H5N1, 113 of whom died. To date, over 200 million fowls have been culled.