| World Bank To Support Bangladesh Avian Flu Program
Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - The World Bank (WB) is planning to provide $38 million to Bangladesh's Avian Influenza Program over a period of five years from 2007 to 2011. A group from the bank recently completed the appraisal of the proposed Avian Influenza Program since it was earmarked by the organization to support it, the WB's Dhaka office said in a information note on Monday. Of the total cost, $16 million would be allocated from the existing Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Program, which is funded by the WB in the form of IDA credit and pooled grant resources from participating donors. The Department of Livestock Services of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock will be the implementing agency for AIPRP, while avian influenza activities of human health will be implemented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh, the note adds.
China reports first human bird flu case of 2007
A Chinese farmer who contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has "fully recovered" from the virus and has been released from hospital, state media reported Wednesday. The report from the China News Service said the country's 22nd human case of avian influenza afflicted a 37-year-old farmer from the eastern province of Anhui, who fell ill in December. It had been six months since the previous known case of bird flu infecting a person in China. The farmer reportedly kept poultry flocks in his backyard. Poultry and migratory birds have been linked to the H5N1 virus. The Chinese case comes after Indonesia's Health Ministry reported Wednesday that a 14-year-old boy had died from the virus, the country's first bird flu fatality of 2007.
Authorities on avian flu alert as migratory birds arrive
Dubai: With the start of the migratory bird season, the authorities have become vigilant to monitor the situation to prevent bird flu related cases from entering the country. A fresh wave of bird flu related cases in Asia has once again forced the authorities concerned to be on their toes. In the latest case, the avian virus infected a farmer in China and killed an Indonesian teenager. According to the World Health Organisation statistics, H5N1 strain of bird flu virus has infected 263 people in 10 countries since 2003 killing 157. "We did not relax at all despite the fact that there has been no reported bird flu case in the UAE," said Dr Hesham Ahmad Fahmi, Head of the Veterinary Section at the Dubai Municipality. He said the special committee of the municipality, which works in coordination with the UAE's National Emergency Committee on Bird Flu, monitors the situation regularly.
INTERVIEW - Bird flu cases are reminder of threat - WHO expert
GENEVA (Reuters) - A recent spate of human bird flu cases from Egypt to China is a new warning that the virus could yet spark a pandemic, a top WHO official said on Friday. Keiji Fukuda, coordinator for the global influenza programme at the World Health Organisation (WHO), also said there was "no evidence" of any human-to-human transmission of the virus, including in hard-hit Indonesia. But the potential of the H5N1 virus to mutate and spread more easily between people remains a threat, although public complacency may have set in during several relatively quiet months, the U.S. expert warned. "It really looks like this has a kind of seasonal pattern that increases in winter months in the northern hemisphere. I think that is what we're seeing right now," Fukuda told Reuters in an interview.
Half of Indonesia Bird Flu Endemic
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: As many as 223 out of 444 regencies or cities in all of Indonesia are bird flu virus endemic areas (areas that been hit by the virus and there is always the potential for this to reoccur. This number is already half of the total regencies in Indonesia, Memed Z.H., Head of Public Communication for Bird Flu Campaign Management of the Agriculture Department, told Tempo, Saturday (13/1). According to Memed, this number which was valid up until last Friday, has risen from less than 200 regencies or cities. So far, only three provinces are free from the deadly virus: Maluku, North Maluku and Gorontalo. Memed explained that the bird flu endemic provinces are divided into two categories, high-risk areas and areas with low intensity cases. These high-risk areas are the Agriculture Department's main target for vaccinations and there are only five provinces that are not included in the two categories.
Bird Flu Kills Indonesian, May Have Returned to Japan (Update2)
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu killed a 37-year-old woman in Indonesia and may have infected hundreds of poultry in Japan as the lethal virus resurfaces across Asia. The woman's death late yesterday brings to 59 the number of fatalities from the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Indonesia, Runizar Ruesin, a Health Ministry official, said in a mobile phone text message today. Japan's farm ministry suspects the virus killed poultry on a farm on the southern island of Kyushu. The new infections provide chances for H5N1 to mutate into a form more dangerous to people. Millions could die if it mutates and begins spreading easily between people, sparking a pandemic. South Korea, Vietnam and Nigeria had fresh poultry outbreaks last month, while China and Egypt found human cases.
Jabs for poultry workers to beat bird flu
Thousands of people working with poultry are being offered winter flu vaccinations in an attempt to avoid a pandemic strain taking hold, it emerged yesterday. The £500,000 initiative has identified 60,000 people who work with flocks, on egg or chicken farms as well as those who slaughter birds, or clean or handle dead birds in the meat production industry. The move is designed to reduce the risk of a human suffering from winter flu coming into contact with a bird with H5N1 avian flu. .
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