THE Ministry of Health yesterday issued guidelines for people travelling to areas affected by bird or avian flu.
“The public are urged to avoid visiting markets or poultry farms and to avoid contact with live poultry.
“People should also avoid contact with surfaces that appear to be polluted with the excrement of poultry or other animals.
“When consuming poultry, it should be ensured that it is cooked meticulously in high temperatures.
“The careful and frequent cleaning of hands with soap and water or with an alcoholic antiseptic is the most important and recommended preventive measure.
“The Medical Services, in co-operation with the Health Ministry, are in continuous contact with the European Union, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Suitable preventive measures will be taken if deemed necessary.”
An outbreak of a type of bird flu which has killed at least 57 people in South East Asia has been confirmed in Russia.
There are grave concerns of a global pandemic stemming from the H5N1 type if it mutates into a form which could spread easily from human to human.
It is feared that up to 50 million people around the world could die in a flu outbreak.
In the UK, every GP in the country has been issued with guidance on how to deal with a possible outbreak.
Professor Hugh Pennington, the scientist who led the investigation into Scotland’s e-coli outbreak, which killed more than 20 people, said the issue was “very, very serious”.
“This is a very nasty virus. It’s doing enormous damage in the Far East at the moment. It’s got into Russia.
“If it got here, it would be economically disastrous, never mind the human impact.”
He also said an outbreak could claim more lives than the 40 million who died in an influenza outbreak in 1918.
The WHO has warned that bird flu, which first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, could mutate genetically, making it easier for humans to catch and transmit the disease among themselves.
When asked whether he thought a widespread outbreak in humans was imminent, Lee Jong Wook, Director General of the WHO, said: “We don’t know when it will come. But it would be hugely irresponsible if the WHO and member states did not take preventive measures now.”
