This is a definite read. Scroll down to the beginning of the highlighted parts.
Nigeria: Bird Flu - How to Stay Out of Trouble
February 7, 2007
Posted to the web February 7, 2007
Okey Ndiribe
Lagos
Last week's confirmation by the Minister of Information Mr. Frank Nweke (jnr) that the dreaded avian flu had claimed its first human victim in the country has raised fresh fears about the disease across the country, reports Okey Ndiribe
ARE you one of those who drink fresh eggs? If your answer is yes, you had better desist from doing so until further notice to prevent getting infected with the dreaded bird flu virus. The Lagos State Government has already issued a statement that the bird flu disease which recently led to the death of a 22-year-old woman at Isolo area of Lagos could be contracted through consumption of fresh eggs. The statement further indicated that in addition to this, uncooked eggs should not be used in food items that will not be cooked, baked or heat-treated in other ways. Giving reasons for the directive given to residents of the state, the state government further stated that eggs could contain the H5N1virus which causes the diseases both on the shell and inside, including the yolk and the white. The statement also warned that the greatest exposure to the virus was by handling, slaughtering, and preparation of sick or dead infected poultry for food.
The statement was issued after the dead woman was confirmed to have been infected with H5N1 virus. About three weeks ago, a case of suspected human avian flu was reported by a private hospital in Lagos. After the report was received, officials of the State Avian Flu Response Team visited the hospital and further investigation revealed that the unnamed 22-year-old female patient from Oke-Afa, Isolo was admitted in the hospital on January 15, 2007 with symptoms of difficulty in breathing, cough and fever.
A diagnosis of pneumonia was subsequently made when the patient failed to respond to the treatment for pneumonia. Earlier on, the patient had been treated in a private hospital at Isolo where she was diagnosed with typhoid fever. The lady eventually died the following day. Samples reportedly collected from the corpse and other contacts including family members, nurses and mortuary workers were later taken to the virology laboratory at Abuja.
In a joint statement made available to Vanguard by the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health Dr. Jide Idris, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources,Mr. Wale Raji, results of the these tests were confirmed. In the statement, they declared: "Reports reaching us from Abuja tentatively confirmed the diagnosis of avian influenza. We also do know that samples were sent to the Center for Diseases Control (CDC) in Atlanta and the World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory for confirmation".
However, reacting to the development, the president of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN) Dr. Oyedele Oyediji said the bird to human infection stage of the disease was not particularly new, adding that it had occurred in 47 other countries, including Vietnam.
He explained that the mutation of the virus from the bird to bird stage to the bird to human stage could occur in two ways; a drift which usually takes a longer time to manifest or a shift which could take a shorter time. Oyediji asserted that the spread of the disease in either of these ways could lead to a pandemic.
He pointed out that what the entire world population has been scared of since the outbreak of the disease is the mutation of the virus to a stage where human to human infection would become possible, adding that many countries had already reached an advanced stage in preparing themselves against this possible eventuality.
He further stated that a similar type of human to human flu infection which occurred in 1918 in Spain led to the death of about 50 million people. Another outbreak of flu which occurred in Asia in 1957 also led to the death of two million people, while another one million lost their lives when the disease hit Hong- Kong in 1968.
Oyediji further stated that only strict adherence to bio-security measures could prevent spread of the disease, adding that nothing could be done to prevent mutation of the virus from its present stage to the human to human infection stage.
Said he: "The only thing that could be done now is to prepare for that stage in case it comes".
The Federal Government has already procured one million doses of the anti-bird flu drug as part of its preparation against this dreaded stage of the disease.
Nevertheless, there is growing apprehension among other stakeholders that the federal and various state governments in the country have not done enough to enforce measures that ought to be put in place to prevent spread of the virus from bird to human infection stage.
Oyediji said that the embargo that was placed on inter-state movement of poultry products which was one of the measures adopted by stakeholders to check the rapid spread of the disease that broke out in the country about a year ago was enforced only for sometime but was later relaxed.
Said he: "If you go to the markets in Lagos now, you would notice that poultry products like guinea fowl, ducks, turkey and local chicken from the Northern part of the country are still available".
He complained that smuggling of banned poultry products like hatch-able eggs and frozen chicken across Nigeria's border with Republic of Benin is still going on.
Oyediji also cited the decision to quarantine and kill all poultry products within a five kilometre radius of any infected area as another measure which is not being enforced.
He wondered why the advise given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) stating that the best preventive measure against the avian flu is the implementation of bio-security measures has not been taken seriously.
Such biosecurity measures include embargo on visitors to places susceptible to the disease; hygienic practices, sanitisation, disinfection and pest control in order to prevent the carrying of disease organisms from one point to another.
Oyediji expressed worry that "an evaluation of poultry and pig farms within the country in the past one year showed that only 10 per cent of them had bio-security measures put in place.
Citing reasons why the level of adoption of biosecurity measures were abysmally low, Oyediji said that it was because the enlightenment which was carried out by the various tiers of government did not involve private sector stakeholders.
Said he: "The veterinary and medical doctors in some states where these measures were supposed to have been applied did not want to involve private sector stakeholders because of selfishness on their part".
He regretted that inter-ministerial rivalry and intrigues which characterise a lot of government programmes had set in and some of the government departments involved, run parallel programmes without bothering to work together.
It was learnt that in some states of the federation, animal scientists and poultry farmers were not even members of the committee. Apart from this, many of the public sector professionals who are members of committees that were set up in various states across the country have not been re-trained for many years and therefore have little knowledge of the avian flu.
Oyediji urged the various tiers of government to give grants to poultry farmers to buy sprayers and the right pesticides which should be sold to them at subsidised prices to prevent the spread of the virus. He added that this should be done the way prices of tractors and other farm inputs are being subsidised.
Commenting on the entry of the avian flu virus into the country, Oyediji said it was traceable to the importation of 20,000 hatch able eggs infected with the virus from the Netherlands in 2003.
He had a poser for the Federal Government and Nigerian citizens: "We should ask ourselves why we should be importing breeding stock for chicken when we have animal scientists and the National Animal Production Research Institute at Shika in Zaria?
"Animal scientists there have produced an indigenous commercial breeder called Shika Brown".
Nigeria: Bird Flu - How to Stay Out of Trouble
February 7, 2007
Posted to the web February 7, 2007
Okey Ndiribe
Lagos
Last week's confirmation by the Minister of Information Mr. Frank Nweke (jnr) that the dreaded avian flu had claimed its first human victim in the country has raised fresh fears about the disease across the country, reports Okey Ndiribe
ARE you one of those who drink fresh eggs? If your answer is yes, you had better desist from doing so until further notice to prevent getting infected with the dreaded bird flu virus. The Lagos State Government has already issued a statement that the bird flu disease which recently led to the death of a 22-year-old woman at Isolo area of Lagos could be contracted through consumption of fresh eggs. The statement further indicated that in addition to this, uncooked eggs should not be used in food items that will not be cooked, baked or heat-treated in other ways. Giving reasons for the directive given to residents of the state, the state government further stated that eggs could contain the H5N1virus which causes the diseases both on the shell and inside, including the yolk and the white. The statement also warned that the greatest exposure to the virus was by handling, slaughtering, and preparation of sick or dead infected poultry for food.
The statement was issued after the dead woman was confirmed to have been infected with H5N1 virus. About three weeks ago, a case of suspected human avian flu was reported by a private hospital in Lagos. After the report was received, officials of the State Avian Flu Response Team visited the hospital and further investigation revealed that the unnamed 22-year-old female patient from Oke-Afa, Isolo was admitted in the hospital on January 15, 2007 with symptoms of difficulty in breathing, cough and fever.
A diagnosis of pneumonia was subsequently made when the patient failed to respond to the treatment for pneumonia. Earlier on, the patient had been treated in a private hospital at Isolo where she was diagnosed with typhoid fever. The lady eventually died the following day. Samples reportedly collected from the corpse and other contacts including family members, nurses and mortuary workers were later taken to the virology laboratory at Abuja.
In a joint statement made available to Vanguard by the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health Dr. Jide Idris, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources,Mr. Wale Raji, results of the these tests were confirmed. In the statement, they declared: "Reports reaching us from Abuja tentatively confirmed the diagnosis of avian influenza. We also do know that samples were sent to the Center for Diseases Control (CDC) in Atlanta and the World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory for confirmation".
However, reacting to the development, the president of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN) Dr. Oyedele Oyediji said the bird to human infection stage of the disease was not particularly new, adding that it had occurred in 47 other countries, including Vietnam.
He explained that the mutation of the virus from the bird to bird stage to the bird to human stage could occur in two ways; a drift which usually takes a longer time to manifest or a shift which could take a shorter time. Oyediji asserted that the spread of the disease in either of these ways could lead to a pandemic.
He pointed out that what the entire world population has been scared of since the outbreak of the disease is the mutation of the virus to a stage where human to human infection would become possible, adding that many countries had already reached an advanced stage in preparing themselves against this possible eventuality.
He further stated that a similar type of human to human flu infection which occurred in 1918 in Spain led to the death of about 50 million people. Another outbreak of flu which occurred in Asia in 1957 also led to the death of two million people, while another one million lost their lives when the disease hit Hong- Kong in 1968.
Oyediji further stated that only strict adherence to bio-security measures could prevent spread of the disease, adding that nothing could be done to prevent mutation of the virus from its present stage to the human to human infection stage.
Said he: "The only thing that could be done now is to prepare for that stage in case it comes".
The Federal Government has already procured one million doses of the anti-bird flu drug as part of its preparation against this dreaded stage of the disease.
Nevertheless, there is growing apprehension among other stakeholders that the federal and various state governments in the country have not done enough to enforce measures that ought to be put in place to prevent spread of the virus from bird to human infection stage.
Oyediji said that the embargo that was placed on inter-state movement of poultry products which was one of the measures adopted by stakeholders to check the rapid spread of the disease that broke out in the country about a year ago was enforced only for sometime but was later relaxed.
Said he: "If you go to the markets in Lagos now, you would notice that poultry products like guinea fowl, ducks, turkey and local chicken from the Northern part of the country are still available".
He complained that smuggling of banned poultry products like hatch-able eggs and frozen chicken across Nigeria's border with Republic of Benin is still going on.
Oyediji also cited the decision to quarantine and kill all poultry products within a five kilometre radius of any infected area as another measure which is not being enforced.
He wondered why the advise given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) stating that the best preventive measure against the avian flu is the implementation of bio-security measures has not been taken seriously.
Such biosecurity measures include embargo on visitors to places susceptible to the disease; hygienic practices, sanitisation, disinfection and pest control in order to prevent the carrying of disease organisms from one point to another.
Oyediji expressed worry that "an evaluation of poultry and pig farms within the country in the past one year showed that only 10 per cent of them had bio-security measures put in place.
Citing reasons why the level of adoption of biosecurity measures were abysmally low, Oyediji said that it was because the enlightenment which was carried out by the various tiers of government did not involve private sector stakeholders.
Said he: "The veterinary and medical doctors in some states where these measures were supposed to have been applied did not want to involve private sector stakeholders because of selfishness on their part".
He regretted that inter-ministerial rivalry and intrigues which characterise a lot of government programmes had set in and some of the government departments involved, run parallel programmes without bothering to work together.
It was learnt that in some states of the federation, animal scientists and poultry farmers were not even members of the committee. Apart from this, many of the public sector professionals who are members of committees that were set up in various states across the country have not been re-trained for many years and therefore have little knowledge of the avian flu.
Oyediji urged the various tiers of government to give grants to poultry farmers to buy sprayers and the right pesticides which should be sold to them at subsidised prices to prevent the spread of the virus. He added that this should be done the way prices of tractors and other farm inputs are being subsidised.
Commenting on the entry of the avian flu virus into the country, Oyediji said it was traceable to the importation of 20,000 hatch able eggs infected with the virus from the Netherlands in 2003.
He had a poser for the Federal Government and Nigerian citizens: "We should ask ourselves why we should be importing breeding stock for chicken when we have animal scientists and the National Animal Production Research Institute at Shika in Zaria?
"Animal scientists there have produced an indigenous commercial breeder called Shika Brown".
