The grant includes 80 kits of personal protection equipment, and a range of printed materials to be used in public education on the dangers of bird flu.
Adolfo Muvale, who is the Bird Flu Focal Point in the Ministry of Agriculture, told AIM on Tuesday that the USAID grant will encourage the training activities under way, seeking to ensure that health and agricultural staff are prepared to react in the event of any outbreak.
The two ministries began a joint training programme in 2006, said Muvale, and a contingency plan for dealing with a bird flu outbreak, budgeted at 400 million meticais (about 16 million US dollars) has been approved by the government.
But he stressed the need for further measures to raise awareness of the dangers of the disease, which might strike without warning (since it can be carried by migratory wild birds).
Bird flu outbreaks have been reported from South Africa and from Nigeria, but no cases have been diagnosed yet in Mozambique.
That was no reason for complacency. "Nobody expected the disease to reach west Africa", said Muvale. "So we have to be prepared for an eventual outbreak".
He said that meetings are being held at provincial level to alert the provincial authorities to the threat posed by bird flu.
They in turn will ensure that the message reaches the districts and localities.
Traditional leaders and community radios are also being used to bring bird flu to the attention of peasant farmers.
SOURCE: AIM
