Myanmar needs more help to fight bird flu - FAO
Source: Reuters
BANGKOK, March 14 (Reuters) - Myanmar has responded quickly to its latest bird flu outbreaks but needs more international help to fight the disease over the long term, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said donors including Myanmar's loudest critic, the United States, had pledged $1.4 million in emergency bird flu assistance to the military-ruled government. The FAO said more intensive surveillance was needed in Yangon, the commercial capital where bird flu was found in four townships last month. It also called for a strengthening of laboratory capabilities, public awareness campaigns and animal health services in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. The source of the February outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, the country's first in a year, remained unclear, the FAO said. "Myanmar has achieved substantial progress in the fight against bird flu, through early detection and reporting as well as quick responses during last month's outbreaks," the FAO said in a statement. "However, the country still needs more support to improve its capacity to deal with the disease in the long term," it said. The United States, a fierce critic of Myanmar's poor record on democracy and human rights, has donated equipment worth about $500,000 to fight the disease. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF and other international NGOs have assisted with public awareness campaigns. The junta was criticised last year for being slow to inform the public about the country's first bird flu outbreaks in central Myanmar. This time, newspapers have published daily reports on the outbreaks and warned the public to avoid contact with sick fowl. Myanmar has not reported any human cases of the H5N1 virus, which has killed 168 people and is known to have infected 277 people since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Public health experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that people catch easily from one another, possibly sparking a pandemic.
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