THE bird flu sweeping Asia has achieved near-uncontrollable dimensions, and the reason is clear: several countries have been covering up infections for months. Did we learn nothing from SARS about the folly of concealing disease? Well, health ministries might have. But bird flu affects poultry, at least to start with, and agriculture ministries protect farming and trade, and think short-term. They are less likely to admit a problem until forced to. It has happened before: think BSE.
Far too much is at stake for such cover-ups to continue, so what can we do? One solution is to start controlling viruses the way we control nuclear weapons or ozone-depleting chemicals. Picture a treaty under which members accept no produce from another country unless it joins the treaty, declares changes in the state of certain pathogens, and allows external verification. Carrots as well as sticks would be needed. Rich countries would have to give poor ones the means to monitor problems and deal with them promptly.
If this seems fanciful, consider the alternative. Existing arrangements for preventing runaway animal diseases are failing 鈥� repeatedly and expensively. Were this flu to go pandemic, the economic cost, political toll and loss of human life would be colossal. Bring on the Pathogens Treaty.
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