A call for a global justice response to the threat of pandemic flu

Today humanity faces a massive global threat from avian infl uenza ('bird flu'). Leading researchers believe a human pandemic is not only inevitable but overdue

In December 2006, the Lancet medical journal estimated that a global H5N1 influenza pandemic could kill over 60 million people - 96% of them in the Global South.

n 1918, an influenza virus killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years. Overwhelmingly, these deaths took place in the Global South. People with HIV and AIDS will be particularly vulnerable to a new influenza pandemic, along with those affected by malnutrition and war.

The world needs:

• an end to corporate patents that restrict access to critical medicines
• urgent funding by the rich world to boost health and surveillance systems in countries most at risk in Asia and Africa
• the elimination of large-scale intensive livestock farming, which is accelerating the development of new pandemic viruses.

Corporate greed and Western self-interest are blocking these urgently-needed actions.

The Global Justice Movement can and must take action now.

Signed by: Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Walden Bello, Mike Davis (author of 'The Monster At Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu'), Michael Greger MD (author 'Bird Flu: A virus of our own hatching'), Caroline Lucas (Green MEP, UK), John Pilger, Jonathan Stevenson (Pandemic Action), Kathy Kelly (Voices for Creative Nonviolence), Michael Albert (ZNet), Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize Winner), Hans von Sponeck (former UN Assistant Secretary-General) and others.

Sign the global call (sends an email)