Avian Flu - Government Launches Coordinated Action
Cameroon Tribune (Yaound?)
NEWS
February 19, 2007
Posted to the web February 20, 2007
By Emmanuel Kendemeh
Over 100 journalists have been trained on the preventive and combating measures against the highly pathogenic H5NI strain of the avian flu virus.
The Ad-hoc Inter-ministerial Committee for the prevention and fight against Avian flu last week made it clear that there were no cases of the highly pathogenic H5NI avian flu virus in Cameroon. The officials further stated that the three cases that were identified in March last year in Doualar? near Maroua, Malape around Garoua and Vel? near Yagoua were methodically combated and eradicated. Cameroon is however, not completely saved from avian flu, considering that human death resulting from the avian flu virus was reported in neighbouring Nigeria late last month.
The three cases of the avian influenza witnessed in Cameroon last year crossed from Nigeria and took the government of Cameroon as well as poultry farmers by surprise. The resultant effective was a dysfunction in the way information on the problem was handled. According to the representative of poultry farmers, Ahmadou Moussa, President of IPAVIC, they lost more than CFA 6 billion during the avian flu attack and further added that before the crisis, over 500,000 chicks were produced in the country within two days but now, not up to 50,000 chicks are produced.
It is with the objective to mobilise the entire nation to prevent the bird flu virus from crossing the national borders as well as adopt effective combat measures should the virus resurface in the country that the government has embarked on a series in training seminars. The Ad-hoc Inter-ministerial Committee for the Prevention and Fight Against Avian Flu, chaired by the Assistant Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi from February 13 to15 last week, trained over 100 media professionals. They acquired skills to better inform and educate the general public as well as operators at all levels of the poultry sub-sector, on preventive measures and combating methods of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus. The various experts trained the journalists on the definition of avian influenza, its situation in the world, transmission methods of the virus among poultry and human beings, symptoms of the disease, and preventive measures.
The most important aspect of the training to the media professionals was Hon. Dr Ndembiyembe Paul C?lestin's presentation on the treatment of information in a period of crisis, with bird flu in Cameroon as a case study. Henceforth, during any crisis period the journalists will keep aside their respective editorial policies and protect national interest through the information they disseminated. During the closing ceremony of the seminar presided over by the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Communication, Gervais Mendo Ze, the government, media professionals and actors in the poultry sub-section agreed to work in a coordinated manner with a central unit for information should avian flu reappear in the country.
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