Ethiopia approves plan against bird flu outbreak

June 29, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia has approved a three-year, multi-million dollar plan to boost the country’s preparedness in the event of an outbreak of the deadly bird flu in the impoverished African nation.

The plan, which will cost about 123.8 million dollars (98.7 million euros), includes setting up surveillance systems, boosting national and regional response, increasing public awareness as well supplying drugs and equipment, according to a statement released by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Orgainsation (FAO).

The plan also “aims at providing the necessary guidance for effecting activities that enhance the prevention and control of the influenza in the poultry and human population,” the statement added.

Ethiopia has not recorded any cases of the virulent H5N1 strain, but it is considered at risk after the virus appeared in neighbouring Sudan and a human case was reported in Djibouti, the second country in Africa after Egypt to report human infection.

Health authorities have long warned that the east African region was at particular risk for the spread of the virus because it hosts large numbers of migratory birds thought to be carriers.

The H5N1 virus has hit poultry flocks in dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa and claimed more than 100 human lives, but in Africa only Egypt so far has seen human fatalities with five deaths reported.

(ST)