Bird flu awareness drive to take wings soon

“The theatre group Banglapatahk.com will train locals in these areas who in turn will spread knowledge through art,” Muttoo added.

A total of seven places have been chosen for the project,of which five are in West Bengal bordering Bangladesh. (See Box)

Bird flu had hit Bengal last year with 15 districts,covering around 8,000 sq km,being directly affected by it. In the second phase,nine blocks covering four districts were affected by H5N1 virus.

“Most of those who are dealing with poultry farming are illiterate. Even women constitute a vast chunk of labourers involved in this profession. During the first and second outbreak of bird flu in Bengal we saw there were problems of lack of communication,information and veterinary experts,” said Dhruba Chakraborty of Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals.

The project is expected to make people take precaution and help reduce the possibility of an outbreak.

With swine flu caused by H1N1 virus being declared as pandemic,efforts are on to launch similar awareness programme in the country.

“A similar awareness project proposal on H1N1 virus will be submitted to the Central government soon,” said Muttoo.

“WHO declared H1N1 virus to be pandemic having universal susceptibility. However,H5N1 is not yet pandemic and is in animals,” said Dan Rutz of Center for Disease Control and Prevention,USA.

Areas of target in Bengal
* Dinhata I Cooch Behar
* Mehadipur I Malda
* Petropol I North 24-Parganas
* Naxalbari I Darjeeling
* Hilli I North Dinajpur

Other places
* Sonamura in West Tripura
* Forbesganj in Bihar