Epidemic Info-Sharing Slammed

This article shares the remarks of Amir Attaran, Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy at the University of Ottawa, regarding avian influenza in Canada. Specifically, as reported here, Attaran wrote in an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that, in the event of an avian flu outbreak in Canada, chickens would fare better than humans because "12 of the 13 provinces and territories are under no obligation to share information with the federal government or the rest of Canada during a disease outbreak." He states that for bureaucratic reasons the government and provinces cannot agree on how to share information that might prove crucial to combating a potential epidemic disease outbreak.


Attaran continues with information on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak which killed 44 people in Toronto due, in his opinion, to haggling between the national government in Ottawa and the provincial government in Ontario. "If you don't have information sharing as a matter of course, you're going to waste time and while you're wasting time people are dying."


The article states that under the Health of Animals Act, the federal government has laws to inspect farms, quarantine birds, force provinces to share information, co-ordinate infection control, and "punish anyone concealing the epidemic". However, as stated here, if a human carrying avian influenza were found, Ottawa would rely on provinces to volunteer the information. The article concludes by stating that federal and provincial officials are working to finalise agreements on data sharing.