WRITTEN QUESTION P-2242/03 by Uma Aaltonen (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Spread of rabies to countries where the disease is under control.
Date: 2003-06-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, animal health, animal life, disease prevention, health control, rabies, vaccination

15.1.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 11 E/253

Has the Commission looked into this problem?

Does it not consider that it should alert the competent authorities of the Member States to this serious
danger, so that they may take the necessary preventive measures relating to health?

Does the Commission not believe that there is an urgent need to create a health passport for non-EU
citizens legally travelling to the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(31 July 2003)

As of 2 July 2003 the Algerian Ministry of Health has reported a total of 10 cases of plague to the World
Health Organisation (WHO) of which eight have been laboratory confirmed. These include eight cases of
bubonic plague and two of septicemic plague, of which one was fatal. Eight additional cases are under
investigation. Most cases were near Oran, in the town of Kehalia, 400 kilometer (km) west of Algiers.
Patients have been treated with antibiotics and preventive measures have been taken.

The Commission sent an early warning message alerting Member States about the outbreak through the
Union’s Communicable Diseases Network, which links surveillance structures and public health authorities
(Decision No 2119/98/EC (1)). This network ensures the rapid exchange of information within the Union
and for the co-ordination of the responses. Candidate and European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Countries fully participate in the network and there is close collaboration with the WHO for the
transmission of early warnings.

The Commission considers that there is no benefit to be gained in the effort to control communicable
diseases by the issuance of health passports. Plague is one of the three epidemic diseases subject to the
International Health Regulations and notifiable to the WHO, and it is endemic in many countries in Africa,
the Americas and Asia. Effective treatment is available (antibiotics and supportive therapy) and enables
plague patients to be cured if diagnosed in time. Health passports cannot guarantee the level of health
protection that is required and might even encourage a false sense of security.

(1) Decision No 2119/98/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 1998 setting up a network for the
epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the Community, OJ L 268, 3.10.1998.

(2004/C 11 E/282)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2242/03

by Uma Aaltonen (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(30 June 2003)

Subject: Spread of rabies to countries where the disease is under control

Rabies has been diagnosed in a horse imported into Finland from Estonia in May 2003. The disease was
last ascertained in Finland in 1989 and has since been brought under control through vaccination of dogs
and cats and of wild animals in south-east Finland,
in this case using bait containing the vaccine.
According to the WHO classification, Finland is a rabies-free country. Rabies is prevalent throughout
Eastern Europe as well as in parts of the Baltic region and Russia close to Finland. In Estonia 422 cases in
all were recorded in 2002, namely 355 in wild animals and 67 in domestic animals. Although the
eradication of rabies intrinsically lies within the province of national legislation, the situation will become
significantly more difficult once the new Member States have joined the EU. Because it will be easier for
animals to be transported and moved from one Member State to another and quarantine is to be abolished
(the incubation period for rabies can be as long as six months), rabies prevention will pose a much greater
challenge at national level.

C 11 E/254

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

15.1.2004

Once quarantine for animals has been abolished, what permanent measures will the Commission take

1.
to assist European efforts to combat rabies?

2.
Is the Commission providing any form of support for action by future Member States to reduce the
incidence of rabies, for instance by taking the initiative of laying bait dosed with vaccine in areas at risk, so
as to make it possible to prevent the spread of rabies?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(25 July 2003)

The Commission is aware of the rabies situation in certain new Member States. It is comparable to that
prevailing in Germany and France before large-scale wild-animal vaccination programmes were launched
in the past decade with Community financial assistance, with spectacular results. Eradication of the disease
over vast areas still infected in the mid-90s can now be considered imminent.

The Commission quickly realised that extension of these programmes to the new Member States had to be
given priority. Under Council Decision 90/424/EEC on expenditure in the veterinary field (1)
the
Community has for several years been assisting programmes going beyond the EU’s frontiers into Poland
and the Czech Republic.

the coming years, at

Over
the Commission’s instigation such efforts will be financed under the
PHARE programme, and financial assistance can now be considered assured for the programmes presented
by Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia.

In the case of Estonia aid of EUR 2 million has been available since signature of the Financial Memorandum
in November 2002. Launching of the programme under the supervision of Agriculture Ministry is
accordingly imminent.

It would be wrong to think that enlargement will mean no more quarantine for animals from the new
Member States. At the moment there is in fact no quarantine required in the case of such movements
except for carnivores entering Ireland, Sweden or the United Kingdom. The rules governing livestock such
as horses will not therefore be modified as a result of accession of the new Member States. For domestic
carnivores, the recently adopted Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 998/2003 of 26 May 2003 on
the animal health requirements applicable to movement of these species (2) takes due account of the
imminent enlargement in its provisions on animals coming from these countries.

The only adequate response to the rabies problem in an enlarged Europe therefore lies in wild-animal
vaccination programmes in the new Member States. In planning for a large financial contribution to these
the Commission has done its part to see that everything is in place to facilitate their execution with all
rapidity.

(1) OJ L 224, 18.8.1990.
(2) OJ L 146, 13.6.2003.

(2004/C 11 E/283)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2259/03

by Linda McAvan (PSE) to the Commission

(1 July 2003)

Subject: Information to patients

Given that the proposed pilot scheme for patient information in the pharmaceutical review was rejected by
the European Parliament and the Council, what steps is the Commission now proposing in view of the