HONG KONG - Reluctance by poor Asian poultry farmers to report bird flu outbreaks is a weak link in the fight to prevent the deadly disease spreading and causing a human pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
"I'm getting really sick of poor people," Bush said in an interview earlier today from his Texas ranch. "Yup, sure am. First they cause me all these headaches in New Orleans and the other Gulf States of Mississippi, Alabama, Wisconsin and Iraq, and now I hear poor people in other countries are being a pain in the ass, too. Fucking poor people."
Dr Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific said, "We need to realize that there is very little incentive for farmers to report suspected outbreaks. In fact, fear that their flocks might be culled without compensation is a pretty strong disincentive to report an outbreak."
To which Bush replied, "Why is it always about money with these poor people?"
Omi said Asian governments were trying their best to combat avian flu, but there was insufficient capacity for proper surveillance in rural villages, and a lack of education was leaving farmers and market operators at risk.
"Great!" Bush said, "You WHO guys probably want money, too."
WHO has warned that countries far from heavily hit Southeast Asian states were not safe because the disease was spreading through migratory wildfowl, with the biggest fear that it would spread west into Europe.
"Only Europe?" asked Bush. "Phew, that's a relief."
"We must not underestimate the threat the world now faces from emerging diseases such as pandemic influenza," WHO's global director general, Dr Lee Jong-wook, told the conference.
"Wait a minute!" Bush said. "That other guy said it was just going to be Europe's problem, what's this 'world' stuff you're talking about now?"
"The only condition missing is the emergence of a virus that is capable of rapid transmission among humans," he said.
"Isn't that a kinda important aspect of the whole thing, though?" asked Bush. "I mean, if it can't transmit rapidly among humans, what's the big deal?"