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Enhancing Public Awareness Vital in Anti-Bird Flu: WHO Expert

Posted on: Friday, 18 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Enhancing public awareness vital in anti-bird flu: WHO expert

CHANGSHA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization experts said here Thursday that it is crucial to enhance the public's health awareness in China's all-out fight against the bird flu epidemic.

Public education and awareness in this respect are very important, said Dr. Julie Hall, WHO's epidemic alert and response coordinator, in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.

"The general public should get to know the symptoms of bird flu cases, so that they can detect and report it as soon as possible, which will help lead to best effective reduction of infection and timely disinfection," she said.

A joint inspection group consisting of WHO and Chinese Health Ministry experts arrived in Hunan on Monday, starting their visit in the bird flu hit province.

"This is a very constructive, very positive visit," she said. "We believe the authorities here have worked tremendously hard to detect these cases and respond to them."

China's Ministry of Health confirmed two human bird flu cases in the country Wednesday evening.

The two confirmed cases involve a nine-year-old boy in Xiangtan County of Hunan and a 24-year-old woman farmer in Zongyang County of Anhui Province.

However, there are areas that need to improve and China is facing a tremendous challenge in controlling the disease in the animal as well as strengthening the early detection for any possible human cases, Dr. Hall said.

She said the key areas for strengthening are to raise public awareness, try to reduce the fear and encourage people to report, and seek health care if they have contact with sick poultry so that they can be treated at an early stage.

On the national level, the WHO will help with the revision of national guideline for prevention and control of the disease. " In light of the experiences in Hunan and Anhui provinces, we believe there is a very good foundation here in China for early response and early detection of cases," Dr. Hall said.

She said the WHO will be helping to support the national authority over the coming weeks and months.

The WHO said the subtype H5 of avian influenza virus is still a rare disease in human. "It takes considerable efforts for this virus to jump from animals to human, requiring very close contact with infected live animals, and we do not believe that you can catch the disease from well-cooked poultry," Dr. Julie Hall said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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