Leadership (Abuja)
Moses John
27 March 2008
Abuja — The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an inter-governmental organisation working on migration, has called for the fight against the spread of Avian and Human Influenza (AHI) pandemic within the Federal Capital Territory.
Speaking on the deadly pandemic at the Garki model market, popularly called Monday market, the senior programme coordinator of IOM, Abuja, Mrs. Queen Chinwe Okaro, said the programme was aimed at addressing the health needs of migrants and mobile populations in Nigeria.
Mrs. Queen added that IOM, since 2007 with the support of the Japanese government, has been experimenting on Avian and Human Influenza (AHI) pandemic preparedness project, which creates awareness amongst key government institutions and other stakeholders.
According to her "amongst the migrants and mobile populations in Nigeria and fowl sellers who hire vehicles to transport their poultry products, nomads were identified as a target group for the IOM interventions".
The coordinator also disclosed that the sensitisation campaign which started yesterday March 26, and would end on 2008 March 29, is aimed at sensitising the people of the FCT and the identified groups with a view to urging them to adopt healthy behavioural practices so as to avert the pandemic.
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Spread of avian flu by drinking water Proved awareness to ecology and transmission is necessary to understand the spread of avian flu. For this it is insufficient exclusive to test samples from wild birds, poultry and humans for avian flu viruses. Samples from the known abiotic vehicles also have to be analysed. There are plain links between the cold, rainy seasons as well as floods and the spread of avian flu. That is just why abiotic vehicles have to be analysed. The direct biotic transmission from birds, poultry or humans to humans can not depend on the cold, rainy… [Read Full Text]