Vietnam’s Department of Animal Health has launched a US-funded mass media campaign on avian influenza prevention.

It will feature audio spots on the radio, billboards and 200,000 flyers promoting three practices: trading healthy poultry, washing hands before and after handling poultry, and immediate reporting of sick or dead poultry, the statement said.

Vietnam early this month announced the reemergence of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the northern region, the first outbreak after six months of containment. With 56 deaths to date, the country has the second-highest avian flu death toll after Indonesia.

Since 2005, the US government has allocated approximately US$50 million to support Vietnamese programs combating avian and pandemic influenza, the America Embassy statement said.

Source: Thanh Nien