The Shadow Health Minister has criticised Government for not putting funds aside in this year's Budget to deal with a potential bird flu pandemic.

Louise Jackson claimed extra money should already have been earmarked by Government to buy medicine and develop strategies.

But Health Minister Patrice Minors hit back, saying it was impossible to estimate the cost until a pandemic actually took hold and adding that she refused to try to "meet every demand of the Opposition number".

Ms Jackson said other countries had already bought supplies of vaccine, put funds in place to pay for treatment and kept the public informed on plans for dealing with an outbreak.

"Obviously it's going to involve quite a bit of money and that money needs to be put aside," she said. "Most countries have already done this. I don't think it's enough to say it will be covered from the current health department budget. That means they are not putting any extra aside."

She said Government had been promising a public awareness campaign on the threat of a pandemic since the Budget was announced but one had still not been launched.

"Let's just say we do have a pandemic here, so far we haven't had anybody tell us what's going to happen. Maybe it's a big secret and we are not supposed to know about it."

Ms Minors told The Royal Gazette that the publicity campaign would be launched within the "next couple of weeks".

She insisted the Government was taking the threat seriously.

"We are on top of it all," she said. "As Opposition she (Ms Jackson) is not getting the information that she wants but she will get the information in due course. I think maybe she doesn't have a full appreciation of the cost."

She added: "It needs to become a pandemic. What's happening is there have been humans being affected. But there has been no human-to-human passing of the virus. That's when it become pandemic. That's when we will be putting the money into the treatment.

"It's not possible to identify the cost at this point but we have been preparing for some time. We have given a wealth of information and I'm not going to play into trying to meet every demand of the Opposition number.

"The money is in the Department of Health. It's not there as a lone item. It is not determined what the cost will be. We have established a committee with the Government and we are meeting.

"There is going to be a campaign launch within the next couple of weeks for the further education of the general public."

The World Health Organisation's Pandemic Influenza Draft Protocol of Rapid Response and Containment does not detail precisely how Governments should budget for a possible pandemic.

But it states: "National pandemic preparedness plans should address the issue of integration of national resources for rapid response and containment."

It adds that a strategy for public communications should be developed.