Bird flu drill to take place soon
A full-scale exercise to combat the bird flu virus will be held in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi: A full-scale exercise to combat the bird flu virus will be held within the next couple of weeks, the National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu decided in a meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting, chaired by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee, also made its ninth and final review of the National Avian Influenza Crisis Management Plan and unanimously approved it.
After the meeting Majid Al Mansouri, committee spokesman and Secretary-General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) said the action plan would be activated in the drill to be held in Abu Dhabi.
He said all five stages of the plan, namely the preliminary stage, the surveillance stage (the current stage), initial response, declaring an emergency and post-emergency action will be activated during the full-scale drill.
Al Mansouri said: "The drill will be staged in a real life scenario to fully prepare the country for any outbreak of the virus. However, every effort will be made to guarantee people's daily lives are not affected. It will be a smooth and effective exercise involving all parties in the plan. A press conference will be held after the drill to inform the public about the exercise and its activities."
He ruled out the involvement of the public, schools and private clinics in the drill. According to him the exercise will be staged in an isolated area. Al Mansouri said preparation work on the drill was already in place. After it is successfully carried out, he added, a series of drills including desk exercises will be held.
He added the committee had unanimously approved the National Avian Influenza Crisis Management Plan, which, he added, was likely to cost an estimated Dh100 million.
The plan will be presented before the Federal Cabinet at the next meeting for its final approval and implementation.
All members, representing various ministries, departments, organisations and authorities, including the UAE Armed Forces, attended the meeting on Tuesday. They included Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Interior Minister and Deputy Chairman of the committee, and Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs.
Al Mansouri said so far more than 6,000 birds have been tested for the virus in Abu Dhabi alone, and all the results were negative. "The country remains free from the virus. So far not a single positive case has been discovered among the domestic, pet and wild [including migratory] birds. Hopefully the country will remain free from avian flu until the global threat is over," he said.
He said a stock of four million capsules of the antiviral drug Tamiflu have been ordered by the country in addition to the 100,000 currently available.
Objectives and goals
- Develop practical plans to prevent bird flu entering the country.
- Establish a plan to be implemented by all authorities during the operation of the emergency response and crisis management.
- Provide all available resources for ministries, departments and agencies to control and prevent the disease from spreading.
- Provide a coordination mechanism between authorities to implement the requirement of the plan.
- Develop a national database for emergency operations.
- Submit a recommendation to develop laws to protect the country from potential health risks and hazards related to bird flu.
- Develop procedures to improve national capabilities to ensure the highest performance during emergency and crisis management operations.
- Improve laboratories to ensure they can identify the virus.
- Provide public awareness about the disease.
- Set up communication between GCC states and global organisations.
Crisis Management Plan
Risk Ranking Operations Stage
1 Prevention Procedures Nil, No bird flu detected
2 Surveillance & Investigation Low, Birds/ Human infection Procedures suspected
3 Initial Response & Medium, bird flu confirmed Rapid Intervention and spread within a controlled area
4 Declaring Emergency & High, bird flu confirmed & spread
Full Scale Operations within a known area and possibly others.
5 Controlling the Crisis & Termination Nil, bird flu controlled & of Operations terminated
Source: National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu and Gulf News
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