Compensation for Avian Influenza Cleanup

摘要

To the Editor: Since 2003, highlypathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)H5N1 has shaken the world. In 10countries, 258 confirmed cases inhumans and 154 deaths have beenreported (1). The number of countrieswith confirmed HPAI in poultry andwild birds jumps to 54 (2). Almost allpersons infected with H5N1 have hadclose contact with sick or dead poultryby having butchered them, pluckedthem, or played (children) with them(3). Because H5N1 can potentiallymutate or reassort into a strain capableof efficient human-to-human trans-mission, rapid elimination of theH5N1 virus in poultry and other risk-reduction interventions are thought tobe essential for preventing furtherspread of HPAI (4). As a result, thou-sands of workers around the worldhave culled millions of domesticpoultry (5).