Albert Osterhaus Quotations

There is a real threat, and I think the situation we are facing today is quite alarming. We really fear that this particular virus might be at the basis of the first pandemic outbreak of influenza in the 21st century.

Cat-to-human transmission is theoretically possible and not to be excluded.

From a public health point of view, I think what is happening in southeast Asia is much more serious than what would be happening in Europe ... .

I think it is a worrisome situation, especially because we think that swans could be an indicator species, meaning that swans are relatively susceptible and so it could well be that other aquatic birds could be infected. Now we have seen it in Greece and Italy and now Germany. It is spreading all over Europe.

I think we should form a European influenza task force that brings together all our knowledge, so that if you have outbreaks in the future you could form delegations to work together with local experts in the area where it occurs.

Swans fly no more than 50km a day. Looking at the way the disease has spread ­ one day it's in Italy, a day later it's in the north of Germany ­ that makes us believe that there are other bird species spreading the disease.

There is little you can do about the wild birds, especially the migratory ones, it's very difficult to do anything there and probably it's not possible or even desirable. The most important thing is to now, as much as possible, to have the poultry flocks indoors.

Failure to act now... will leave us empty handed when a pandemic strikes and will cause needless deaths,

The situation in the Netherlands could be quite explosive because of the huge concentration and numbers of poultry. It is worse than in other countries.

The big problem, of course, is that the number of people on whom real extensive pathology has been carried out is limited.

In these countries, the risk of a pandemic virus emerging is much higher than it is in Western Europe.