Public-Private Sector Holds Workshop With Media and Stakeholders To Develop Communication Activities

PR Log (Press Release) – Aug 17, 2009 – Islamabad: The National Programme for Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza (NPCPAI) in joint collaboration with USAID-AI.COMM today held a workshop with leading media representatives and stakeholders to find out new innovative outreach communication campaigns to reduce the avian influenza (H5N1) in Pakistan.

The purpose of this workshop is to present research findings and to plan communication activities to reduce the risk of illness from the bird flu virus. The participants included officials of relevant Government Ministries, representatives from international development agencies, Pakistan Poultry Association, Academia and Communication Professionals.

Among the leading participants was Mr. Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of SAMAA TV, one of Pakistan’s leading Urdu news channels. Mr. Jahangir endorsed the role of a new media era in Pakistan by sharing that the new media age is driven by constructive journalism which aims at creating awareness on the socio-economic issues at grass-root level, which not only engages stakeholders across the board but also brings forward solutions to the problems. Mr. Amir said that “the media needs to be engaged as a partner in the education for sustainable development, especially within health and we need to look into innovative solutions to reach out to all communities at grass-root level so that maximum benefits are given to our communities and the various initiatives may result in tangible results. We need to educate our people on how to make a better future for themselves and provide them with the solutions for it”.

Mohammad Ali Afridi, Federal Secretary Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development highlighted the importance of livestock for the national economy by sharing that the sector of poultry and livestock contributes 1.1% to the GDP. In 2008-09, Rs. 18.8 billion revenue was generated and the sector provides employment to around 2 million people. Mr. Afridi applauded the proposed alliance between the media and other stakeholders and said that such alliances ensured stronger participation and network development for a cause.

Speaking on the current prevention programme, Dr. Muhammad Akram Muneer, Project Director of the National Program for the Control & Prevention of Avian Influenza (NPCPAI) shared that the government had established 66 rapid response units in the various cities to provide the best possible assistance to the farmers; not only this but a total of 40 vehicles and 40 motor bikes were also being used for monitoring purposes.

Since the launch of the program, a total of 421984 samples were analyzed and 4291 people were trained. In the year 2006, 26 cases were detected; in 2008 the reported cases reduced to 8 and there have been no outbreak since last year.  Dr. Muneer further added that Rs.24 million compensation amounts have been distributed among the farmers whose livestock has suffered from the virus.

Mr. Amir Jahangir also said that prevention was the key to improve the health situation in Pakistan, which is why awareness campaigns were a crucial part of the health communication plan.

The workshop focused on the desired outcome of the discussed communication plan, which is to minimize the risk of animal to animal transmission and animal to human, make vulnerable groups and other segments of society know how to protect themselves, improve hygiene knowledge and practices and make key leaders at national and sub-national levels aware of and participate in national, provincial, district and sub-district preparedness activities and also make health service providers aware of the prevention and control, detection, and reporting protocols.  

Country Director AI. COMM, Mr. Yousof Khan shared that AI.COMM would be working strategically with the media to ensure accurate reporting and plays its role in promoting safe behaviours. The media campaigns would also play a role in regularly updating communities in target districts on the status of flu in their area, inform the vulnerable groups about influenza, its modes of transmission and preventive measures and encourage the vulnerable groups to report all animal and human sickness (flu like symptoms) and deaths to the authorities.
Influenza A (H5N1) virus – also called “H5N1 virus” – is an influenza A virus subtype that occurs mainly in birds, is highly contagious among birds, and can be deadly to them. H5N1 virus does not usually infect people, however, confirmed cases of human infection from several subtypes of avian influenza infection have been reported since 1997. Most of these cases have resulted from people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces.
Symptoms of avian influenza in humans have ranged from typical human influenza-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches) to eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases (such as acute respiratory distress), and other severe and life-threatening complications. Of the few avian influenza viruses that have crossed the species barrier to infect humans, H5N1 has caused the largest number of detected cases of severe disease and death in humans. However, it is possible that those cases in the most severely ill people are more likely to be diagnosed and reported, while milder cases go unreported.
The presented research on the topic showed that because all influenza viruses have the ability to change, scientists are concerned that H5N1 virus one day could be able to infect humans and spread easily from one person to another. Because these viruses do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population. If H5N1 virus were to gain the capacity to spread easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic (worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin.
National Program for Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza (NPCPAI) is a project of the Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development (MLDD) whose overall objective is to develop national capacity to combat any outbreak of avian influenza in Pakistan. AI.COMM is a USAID- funded global activity to design and implement behavior change communication activities to reduce and control avian influenza.