Bhutan’s risk status: Bhutan is a landlocked Himalayan country of under 700,000 people, many of whom live in remote mountain villages. Bhutan is not directly affected by the current avian influenza outbreaks in Asia but is highly vulnerable. The country may be affected by H5N1 virus through importation of infected poultry, through migratory birds, or through humans if the virus acquires the ability to spread from person to person in currently affected countries. Bhutan and India share a porous border with heavy traffic of people and goods. The majority of the poultry import comes from India.
The rationale for Bank involvement is as follows. First, the growing pandemic risk, and the need for a coordinated international response provides a global public goods argument for Bank involvement. Second, with its experience elsewhere, the Bank is well placed to field multi-sectoral teams to tackle the technical, social, economic, and regulatory dimensions of the problem on a country-by-country basis. Finally, the Bank has now in place an Adaptable Program Loan (APL) to finance the Global Program for Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic Preparedness and Response (GPAI), which can rapidly support country-specific preparedness using guidelines for accelerated project processing.
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