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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 22 Feb 2008 : 19:24:38
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Sensitisation Workshop on Avian And Human Influenza
By Fabakay B. Ceesay
The office of the Vice President in consultation with the UNDP, the National Taskforce on Avian Influenza, partners and representatives of the donor community, had undertaken a three-day sensitisation workshop on the above subject matter, at the Baobab Holiday Resort, from Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 February, under the disaster management project, funded by UNDP.
According to the National Disaster Management Coordinator, Mr. Essa Khan, the initiative is to undertake sensitisation activities on the document that had been prepared by the stakeholders together with the international consultant that was recruited by the UNDP, in consultation with the office of the Vice President. Mr. Khan noted that the document was called “The Gambia comprehensive emergency preparedness response plans on Avian and Human Influenza”. He said that Avian Influenza is now becoming a global issue; that it has threatened lives and livelihoods. Mr. Khan noted that the plan had been properly planned and documented and well researched. He urged the participants to actively engage themselves to look at the plan and how best they can sensitize the general populace and to know the way forward.
Mr. Khan noted that the role of the media in the initiative is to disseminate information about the disease.
The UNDP resident representative, Mr. Vitalae Muntean, said that Avian Influenza (AI) is an acute, contagious disease that has been recorded in many countries throughout the world including most of Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Far East, North and South America and Africa. Mr. Muntean noted that the pandemic has grown over the past years with a potential for socio-economic, human and biodiversity implications, in particular. The UNDP Rep said that Avian Influenza causes high mortality, aiming at the poultry population and thus reducing income for the rural poor and has disastrous effects on international trade and domestic consumption of poultry products. “A good number of the local human population depends on poultry as sources of measures and protein,” said Mr. Muntean. He further noted that the human implication represents a real potential for a pandemic of the human influenza, including death of people as has been witnessed in China and Indonesia; that the biodiversity implications are that water birds (migrating species), are potential carriers of the highly pathogenic strain of the Avian Influenza Virus, which are often the target of control and eradication measures. He said the eradication measures often lead to drastic decline in species diversity as well as impoverished status of protected areas as biodiversity “Hotspots” and tourists destinations with devastating consequences for ecotourism as a source of foreign exchange.
Mrs. Fatou Jassey Kuyateh, Permanent Secretary at the Vice President’s Office, said even though the virus has not yet entered the Gambia, the spread of the virus from East Asia to the rest of the world has been remarkably fast with outbreaks in all parts of Asia, Europe, North and West Africa now on a regular basis. She stated that The Gambia must be fully prepared both for the current virus in circulation and for the emergence of a pandemic strain. Mrs. Jassey Kuyateh noted that three key requests were made for the assistance of an international expert for the development of a comprehensive and action oriented National Action Plan for Avian Influenza prevention and control in the Gambia. She said the request focused on the three key areas as, to undertake a qualitative and quantitative risk assessment and analysis for Avian Influenza; to enhance surveillance of Avian Influenza in the poultry sector and to develop an emergency preparedness plan for Avian Influenza and to conduct an emergency simulation on the plan. “These three key areas are critical to the prevention and control of both avian and human influenza,” she said.
The programme was chaired by Mr. Abdoulie Camara.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issues
Issue No. 22/2008, 22 – 24 February, 2008
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