Brussels, 24/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The extraordinary informal conference of health ministers, which was held in Vienna on Friday 24th February, saw a "intensive discussion" on all aspects of public health and risk prevention within the context of the spread of bird flu, announced Austrian health care Minister, Maria Rauch-Kallat. Kicking off by stressing that the example of Turkey shows that correctly coordinated action can help to control the spread of the disease, the Austrian President of the Council went on to reiterate all the coordination efforts already set in place within the Union, particularly via the early warning system and monitoring and follow-up activities carried out by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. However, efforts remain to be made in the field of the coordination of information policies and a European communication policy, said the Austrian Minister, pointing out that the risk to health is low in the population overall, and that it is entirely down to personal behaviour. This is why good information is so important. Maria Rauch-Kallat distinguished between three at-risk groups: -the majority of the population, with no contact with poultry, whose risks are likely to be zero; -a group, made up mainly of children and the elderly, for whom there is a risk in relation to their proximity to poultry (the Minister pointed out that if a wild bird will allow people to approach it, it is likely to be sick); -the group with a real risk includes all persons who come into contact with poultry (in the exercise of their professional activities, leisure activities, or who own domestic poultry). During the meeting, the Austrian Presidency circulated a guide to best practice, announced the minister, who also explained that in Austria, she has written to all newspaper editors, calling upon them to ensure that within their publications, it is always the same person who writes about bird flu, to prevent confusing or contradictory messages being sent out to the public.