pandemic, as across the Atlantic European Union officials struggled to contain the deadly strain of the disease, BosNewsLife learned Thursday, November 3.
The US based Christian Emergency Network (CEN), a Christian response platform of 47,000 churches and 5,000 Christian media and ministry groups, said it was concerned that many Christian families were not yet ready to "pray, care [and] share" in case of an expected health crisis.
CEN made the announcement shortly after United States President George W. Bush admitted that the world’s last remaining superpower had done little to improve its defenses against the spread of the H5N1 virus of Bird Flu, which already killed over 60 people in Asia since late 2003.
Bush has asked $7.1 billion in emergency funding for protection and prevention of the virus penetration in America and a global strategy to detect and report potential strains of bird flu which may mutate into human viral strains capable of taking millions of lives worldwide. Millions have died in past influenza pandemics, the worst of which occurred in 1918 when the "Spanish flu" virus killed as many as 50 million people, but officials say there may be a better coordination this time around.
POTENTIAL CATASTROPHIC EVENT
However CEN Chief Executive Officer Mary Marr told BosNewsLife in a statement that "just as the president is calling Americans and communities to prepare for this potentially catastrophic event, CEN [urges] individual Christians, churches, ministries and denominations to ensure that they are ready – physically and spiritually."
She said CEN, which already introduced 72-hour ‘survival kits’, believes that "as we see in the lives of Nehemiah, Joseph and other biblical personalities, good stewardship of our lives and resources includes preparation."
“Today, we live with supplies ostensibly as near as the closest store. We do not think of shortages or the possibility of hoarding as an irresponsible response. But we should. When people don’t prepare, they respond irresponsibly in times of disaster by hoarding. The Bible addresses this,” she explained.
"CRITICAL" BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES
Marr stressed that "if Christians, who are called to read and adhere to biblical principles, do not do so, [they] certainly are not setting an example that is pleasing to God. Hence, when others panic, we lose the chance to care for others, for we ourselves are not prepared. In that case, we are missing a critical opportunity to share the hope of Christ. For that reason alone, Christians must prepare.”
Meanwhile in the Hungarian capital Budapest, the government has been supporting the
development of a vaccine against the deadly flu virus H5N1, which it claims could play a major role in saving many lives around the world.
"In case of a pandemic, a new vaccine has to be worked out, because that is going to be an absolutely new virus," admitted Hungary’s Health Minister Jeno Racz in an interview with BosNewsLife.
However "the vaccine that we have at present is protective against the virus H5N1. And this method is of great significance in case of a pandemic because the testing and the accreditation of the method has required several months," he said.
EU REMAINS CONVERNED
But the Director of Public Health of the European Commission, Fernand Sauer, told BosNewsLife it was too early to say whether the Hungarian vaccine is effective. "This vaccine has not yet been evaluated and has been [just] announced. And a couple of vaccine producers which are more widely known in Europe have also announced their intention to submit…It is good to have more contenders and the European medicines agency will be able to evaluate all of them and they will only approve the ones that are effective," he said.
Sauer spoke at a recent two day gathering in Budapest of the newly formed European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) of the European Union, amid pressure on Hungary to strengthen health measures after cases of bird flu were discovered in neighboring Romania and Croatia.
Although ECDC officials say that so far the risk to human health has been restricted to people working with poultry, the agency’s director, Zsuzsanna Jakab, warned of complacency.
PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS TESTED
"We have already visited six European countries to evaluate their pandemic preparedness plans and we continue with that until we have covered all the 25 (EU) countries," she told BosNewsLife. "And then we would like to go outside the European Union to meet the neighboring countries and to make sure that they have a plan in place, because that’s where my worries lie. And also to go to the other regions like Asia, [where] I realized they need a lot of support, partly in capacity building and partly also in anti virus [arrangements]."
However CEN CEO Marr said it was wrong for especially Christians to expect to much from governments at a time of crisis. "Remember God is in the warning, as we have seen from those given all throughout the Bible and even the hurricanes of 2005 and other disasters around the world," she said.
"If Noah had not heeded warnings where would we be?" Marr added, referring to a Biblical story about Noah building a boat, the ark, so he, his family and a male and female of every kind of animal escaped God’s flood. "We need to be ready to seize the opportunity to share our faith effectively through prayer, caring for those in need, and sensitively offering Christ," she stressed.
