Friday, November 4, to pray and ask God to prevent a deadly Bird Flu pandemic in Asia’s only Christian nation, after local authorities warned the virus was due to arrive soon.
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu province, said Catholics should seek "divine intervention" to prevent a massive outbreak of the deadly strain of Bird Flu, known as the H5N1 virus, which killed at least 62 people in Asia so far.
In an interview with BosNewsLife, Vidal said he has begun organizing a series of dawn rosaries which are expected to attract large numbers of Catholics, as part of his spiritual battle to keep the Philippines safe from Bird Flu infection.
"Let’s all make a prayer rally for this," Vidal told BosNewsLife in Manila. "Let us all pray that [Bird Flu] won’t land in our country," he said. Dawn rosaries are common in Cebu and nearby areas, which were recently confronted with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), a mosquito born disease found in the tropics, with a geographical spread similar to Malaria.
SEEKING "GOD’S SHIELD"
280 people reportedly died of DHF in the Philippines this year alone. For bird flu, which experts say could kill millions across the world, Vidal wants to celebrate special masses among the people of Cebu. Both dawn rosaries and the Eucharistic celebrations seeking God’s shield from the virus "would be held as long as there is a need," he added.
His comments come at a time when the Roman Catholic Church exerts considerable influence in both governmental and non-governmental affairs, although there is a constitutional provision for the separation of Church and State: Roughly 95 percent of the nearly 88-million Filipinos are Christians, of which over 80 percent belong to the Roman Catholic Church, experts say. About 12 percent support various Protestant denominations, according to several estimates.
Vidal said he was particularly concerned that the Philippines would soon face actual Bird Flu like China, Mongolia and other countries, as some birds from these regions would infect local
poultry and livestock.
GOVERNMENT SHARES CONCERN
The cardinal’s appeal for prayers came after the county’s Department of Health warned it was "only a matter of time before" Bird Flu, particularly its deadly H5N1 strain, arrived "because of the regular migration of birds to the Philippines during the cold period from October to February," from nearby countries
The World Health Organizations (WHO) agreed that the "time was ripe" for a deadly Bird Flu pandemic. So far, the H5N1 virus, which could kill humans, has spread from Asia to several countries of Europe, including Romania, Croatia, Greece and the United Kingdom. The Philippines is yet to be affected by Bird Flu.
There are worries among European Union officials that Asia is not well prepared to prevent and deal with a pandemic. The director of the EU’s newly formed European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Zsuzsanna Jakab, told BosNewsLife she wants to investigate the situation.
GOING TO ASIA
"We also want 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]," she said during a recent ECDC meeting in Budapest.
Yet amid the global alert, Philippines’ Health Secretary Francisco Duque III warned of a "pandemic of misinformation" which he said "would only trigger panic and waste money."
The problem "resulting from inaccurate and exaggerated media reporting would cost countries amounts bigger than what should actually be spent in case of bird flu pandemic," the minister added. "While we prepare for the actual pandemic, we should also be careful about pandemic of [mis]information," Duque stressed.
During the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, he said Southeast Asia alone spent $40 billion to contain the disease.
