Nepal tries to prepare
Via The Rising Nepal, an example of the early stages of a public-awareness campaign: Nepal prone to bird flu risks, precaution urged. Excerpt:
Nepal is among the risk prone countries for Avian Influenza (AI), popularly known as bird flu although no cases have been found in the country so far.
Aiming to provide orientation to journalists on AI Prevention and Control in Nepal on Sunday, doctors and livestock experts said that the country should remain alert and take precaution at the time when many cases of AI were reported in the neighbouring countries. They said that the disease would spread through birds and there should be proper vigil on the migrant birds.
Speaking at the programme, director general at the Department of Health Services Dr. Govinda Prasad Ojha said the pandemic could be reduced if people maintain personal hygiene such as washing hands after touching or coming in contact with birds and chicken.
Cases in countries where bird flu was initially reported are diminishing because of observation of personal hygiene, he said.
Presenting a paper, Dr. Baikuntha Parajuli, programme director at the Directorate of Animal Health under the Department of Livestock Services, said over 200 million chickens have died of this disease all over the world. He said the virus named H5N1 would spread to human beings from birds and at least 60 per cent of the people who contacted the virus have died.
The symptoms of the disease in chickens are they started dying suddenly, swelling on the head, lose appetite and become thirsty. The eggs they produce also become wrinkled and the shell is not hard.
The symptoms in human beings are seen within 18 to 72 hours and the patient suffers from fever and ache on the neck. He said the virus easily passes on to people suffering from chronic diseases, respiratory problems, and chicken and bird sellers.
Some of what this story reports is doubtful or plain wrong: the virus doesn't pass "easily" to any types of people, although it does seem to pass more easily to young people. The symptoms in chickens are new to me.
But this is one of very few stories I've seen from Nepal, and I can well imagine the problems faced by public-health workers as they try to explain what's at stake. I can also imagine the problems of journalists trying to understand the problem and then to translate it into English.
Public education on any health topic, and especially on H5N1, is like an endless version of "Row, row, row your boat." As soon as someone's gone on to the second line, someone else starts the first one, and so on. The result can be cacophonous, and not everyone sings on key.
