Zambo mayor wages intensified anti-avian flu drive, sets drill
by Mimi B. Edaga
Zamboanga City (July 17) -- Mayor Celso Lobregat has created the Zamboanga City Avian Influenza Prevention and Control Committee (ZCAIPCC), a group tasked to set up mechanisms to prevent and control the spread of avian flu in the city.
The creation of the committee is in response to the call of the Regional Avian Influenza Task Force (RAIFF) for local government units to replicate its effort of establishing an avian task force.
Keeping the Philippines a bird-flu country is everybody's business as it is surrounded by countries already infected by the disease. Indonesia is the worst hit country as it registered the most number of cases and deaths due to avian flu. Of the total 27 cases registered, 23 were fatal, the latest of which involved a 6-year-old boy from Banten Province who died July 8, barely a week after showing symptoms of the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
In creating the local avian committee, Mayor Lobregat cited the vulnerability of the city to avian flu as 18 of its 98 barangays are rich with marshlands, swamps and wetlands, the favorite flyways of migratory birds. Likewise, the city's ports and shorelines are possible gateway of fighting fowls and exotic birds into the region if an effective and efficient disaster control mechanism for avian flu is not in place.
City Veterinarian Mario D. Ariola said the city's bird-flu contingency plan depends on it's readiness to respond, contain and control the avian virus when it happens to enter the region.
To test the capability of the city's bird-flu control program, a simulation drill will be executed to check how fast and efficient the five teams of the ZCAIPCC would respond to a given bird-flu case.
The drill will be performed in one of the 18 barangays considered highly vulnerable to the entry of a bird-flu virus. The committee is currently drafting the response mechanisms of its five teams: the information, education and communication team, rapid action team, quarantine team and the surveillance team. (PIA-IX)
by Mimi B. Edaga
Zamboanga City (July 17) -- Mayor Celso Lobregat has created the Zamboanga City Avian Influenza Prevention and Control Committee (ZCAIPCC), a group tasked to set up mechanisms to prevent and control the spread of avian flu in the city.
The creation of the committee is in response to the call of the Regional Avian Influenza Task Force (RAIFF) for local government units to replicate its effort of establishing an avian task force.
Keeping the Philippines a bird-flu country is everybody's business as it is surrounded by countries already infected by the disease. Indonesia is the worst hit country as it registered the most number of cases and deaths due to avian flu. Of the total 27 cases registered, 23 were fatal, the latest of which involved a 6-year-old boy from Banten Province who died July 8, barely a week after showing symptoms of the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
In creating the local avian committee, Mayor Lobregat cited the vulnerability of the city to avian flu as 18 of its 98 barangays are rich with marshlands, swamps and wetlands, the favorite flyways of migratory birds. Likewise, the city's ports and shorelines are possible gateway of fighting fowls and exotic birds into the region if an effective and efficient disaster control mechanism for avian flu is not in place.
City Veterinarian Mario D. Ariola said the city's bird-flu contingency plan depends on it's readiness to respond, contain and control the avian virus when it happens to enter the region.
To test the capability of the city's bird-flu control program, a simulation drill will be executed to check how fast and efficient the five teams of the ZCAIPCC would respond to a given bird-flu case.
The drill will be performed in one of the 18 barangays considered highly vulnerable to the entry of a bird-flu virus. The committee is currently drafting the response mechanisms of its five teams: the information, education and communication team, rapid action team, quarantine team and the surveillance team. (PIA-IX)