A World Health Organization (WHO) official has called for aregional approach in addressing the risk of avian influenza in east Africa.Rita Njau is the World Health Organization's acting director of preventiveservices in Tanzania.

Njau told VOA English to Africa reporter DouglasMpuga that east Africa's major bodies of water contribute to the risk of anavian flu outbreak. "The threat is quite real…. Migratory birds take this pathtwice a year as they migrate either from the southern or northern hemisphere.So we do have a potential threat" (of an outbreak), she said.

She said in 2006, when there was an avian flupandemic in East Asia, WHO took the lead in setting up a task force withrelevant institutions within Tanzania to address the threat. "[The WHO] alsoworked with other United Nations (UN) agencies and a committee was set up todiscuss how to prepare and handle such potential emergencies." She added,"There were actually two parallel task forces ready to tackle the situation asit would arise."

Njau said WHO has contingency plans and haslearned from what happened in Sudan, where there was an avian flu case. Shestressed the importance of getting information to the people so that they knowwhat to do in case of an outbreak.

Njau said more needs to be done about gettingeast African countries to cooperate in efforts to prevent avian flu. "I don'tthink we have done as much as we should. There are no concrete plans for eastAfrica as a region. But there are plans to look at the issue (avian flu) as aneast African problem. These plans involve looking at it holistically as aregion problem instead of looking at it country by country."

The World Health organization and other UNagencies have provided technical and financial support to the countries in theregion. Most of this support is in technical expertise and testing anddetection kits.

Feedback

We'd like to hear what you have to say. Let us know what you think of this report and other news and features on our website. Email your views about what is happening in Africa to: africa@voanews.com. Please include your name and phone number if you would like us to include your comments on our programs.