March 1, 2006

 

Distrust of authorities stifling Nigerian bird flu effort

 

 

Distrust between the government and a large majority of the population is posing a major obstacle to fighting bird flu in Nigeria, where the campaign also is hampered by poor infrastructure, lack of resources and vast distances.

 

International experts have looked disapprovingly at this development in Nigeria, where H5N1 is believed to have spread widely before it was detected and has since been discovered in neighbouring Niger.

 

"The measures of confinement were not taken and transparency was not applied from the beginning," said the director of the World Organisation for Animal Health, Bernard Vallat, in Paris on Monday (Feb 27).

 

"Now we know that all of the neighbouring countries of Nigeria are under a very big threat. The more we'll have the virus spreading around the world, the greater chance of the virus transforming itself into a virus more dangerous for mankind," Vallat added.

 

H5N1 also has been confirmed in Egypt in the north, and in the east Ethiopian officials said Tuesday they had confirmed cases of the H5 group and were sending samples to Italy to verify whether it was more specifically H5N1.

 

Enlisting the poor in the fight against bird flu is crucial to defeating the disease, the international humanitarian group, Action Aid, said last week. Yet evidence shows the poor are being ignored in many countries, the group said.

 

In Nigeria, after decades of misrule by corrupt military and civilian regimes, the 70 percent of the population with little education or income has grown wary of all officialdom.

 

It is the poor who are most at risk from H5N1, which has jumped from chickens to humans in other parts of the world where people, like many Nigerians, stay close to their poultry stocks. In Nigeria, more than 60 percent of the poultry in raised in backyards, running freely with goats, sheep and children.

 

After H5N1 was confirmed at Jaji, Kaduna state officials were quick to announce measures, including a policy to exterminate all birds within a three-kilometre radius.

 

Efforts have, however, been concentrated on commercial farms, with little outreach to villages. A similar pattern has been repeated in the entire northern belt of the country where the presence of the virus has been confirmed in eight states in addition to the capital, Abuja.

 

Three weeks after the virus was discovered at Sambawa farms, no veterinary or health official had visited Birnin Yaro Gari, the village nearest the large commercial operation, said resident Abdulkadir Birnin.

 

"Our chickens have been dying for a whole month before we heard the problem was from Sambawa," Birnin said. "But until now no one has asked us about our health or that of the birds."

 

Though government has announced plans for compensation, offering the equivalent of US$1.80 for each destroyed bird, no officials have come to inquire about the thousands of birds that have died in the village. Villagers insist they would not kill their birds, and instead watch them die.