Increased funding for bird flu research

Research projects aiming to prevent, detect or control avian influenza and other respiratory disease outbreaks will receive $6.5 million in urgent research funding from the Commonwealth Government.

Announcing the funding recently, the Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, said the 33 projects are expected to lead to important advances in Australia's pandemic planning.

"Australia is comparatively well prepared for a pandemic, but improved ways of detecting highly pathogenic avian flu strains in the country and among individual patients will further reduce the impact of any pandemic," Abbott said.

"For example, grants to the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales of about $450,000 and $250,000 respectively will enable work on rapid, cost-effective improvements in diagnostics that can be used to determine whether people with respiratory infections do in fact have the avian flu virus, or another type of infection. The Westmead Millennium Institute has also been awarded $118,000 to develop a rapid diagnostic test for monitoring the development and transmission of drug-resistant influenza.

"The research will also investigate new treatments, preventative measures and test public health systems and interventions. The University of Melbourne will receive more than $400,000 to test flu vaccines in ferrets to help manufacturers provide the best type of vaccine to protect Australians in the event of a global flu outbreak.

"And the University of Queensland will receive almost $300,000 to look at new ways of managing and supporting frontline health workers in an infectious disease outbreak."

Since the emergence of avian influenza in Asia in 2003, the Australian Government has so far committed a total of $555 million on avian influenza and pandemic preparedness measures.