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1 November 2005
ETHIOPIA’S LATEST
THREAT
Ethiopia on Alert for Bird Flu
Ethiopia has a new and imminent threat. Bird flu originating from Asia that is sweeping across Europe and into the Middle East is expected to arrive in Africa in December with the arrival of millions of migratory birds. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that countries along the Rift Valley in eastern Africa - Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, are at greatest risk and more vulnerable due to their lack of preparedness. Ethiopia along with other African countries is now bracing themselves for the worst.
Like Asia, the risk to Africa is high. More than 85 percent of Ethiopia’s 77.4 million people live in rural areas. Almost every person owns and lives in close proximity with their poultry. This way of life increases the risk to the pandemic. With the majority of Ethiopia’s population living in the same house as their poultry there is a much stronger possibility of the bird’s dropping mixing with food items. The dead bodies and droppings of infected birds and poultry are identified as the major sources of infection of this influenza pandemic.
Ethiopia also lacks the infrastructure to police occurrences of the virus and manage disease outbreaks. In addition, Ethiopia has one of the poorest systems of health service delivery in Sub Saharan Africa. The potential health service coverage is 64 percent; however, most of the health institutions suffer from a serious shortage of health personnel, high turnover of staff and inadequate diagnostic facilities. There is no adequate early warning system in place and communication is highly unreliable. Full Report
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| Updated on 1 November 2005 |
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