Sally Furniss
Well-known member
Cambodian officials take bird flu message to the people
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/49421.html
Phnom Penh - UN and Cambodian government officials began a campaign Monday to educate rural residents on the dangers and signs of bird flu, or avian influenza. The week-long campaign across eight of Cambodia's 24 provinces and municipalities, began in central Kampong Thom province in the wake of the announcement that a 13-year-old schoolgirl from eastern Kampong Cham province had become the country's seventh confirmed human victim, dying in hospital Thursday.
The campaign will feature marches and programmes conducted by government officials and bird flu experts and has been organized by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It follows up on a concerted campaign of distributing posters, loudspeaker announcements and door-to-door visits by Health Ministry officials.
"This is to raise awareness about the dangers of bird flu to people in rural areas," the FAO said in a statement.
Health officials have warned that the virus is now endemic to Cambodia, and because it is at its peak potential in March and April, when poultry mortality is highest due to a range of diseases including Newcastle disease. Officials said the disease be misdiagnosed by the country's often uneducated farmers.
Thursday's death was the first confirmed bird flu death in Cambodia since April 2006. The disease has killed around 170 people in Asia since 2003.
Health officials have since given a tentative all-clear for the district where the deceased girl had tended the family flock, but said they were testing another outbreak of mass bird deaths in a neighbouring province.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/49421.html
Phnom Penh - UN and Cambodian government officials began a campaign Monday to educate rural residents on the dangers and signs of bird flu, or avian influenza. The week-long campaign across eight of Cambodia's 24 provinces and municipalities, began in central Kampong Thom province in the wake of the announcement that a 13-year-old schoolgirl from eastern Kampong Cham province had become the country's seventh confirmed human victim, dying in hospital Thursday.
The campaign will feature marches and programmes conducted by government officials and bird flu experts and has been organized by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It follows up on a concerted campaign of distributing posters, loudspeaker announcements and door-to-door visits by Health Ministry officials.
"This is to raise awareness about the dangers of bird flu to people in rural areas," the FAO said in a statement.
Health officials have warned that the virus is now endemic to Cambodia, and because it is at its peak potential in March and April, when poultry mortality is highest due to a range of diseases including Newcastle disease. Officials said the disease be misdiagnosed by the country's often uneducated farmers.
Thursday's death was the first confirmed bird flu death in Cambodia since April 2006. The disease has killed around 170 people in Asia since 2003.
Health officials have since given a tentative all-clear for the district where the deceased girl had tended the family flock, but said they were testing another outbreak of mass bird deaths in a neighbouring province.