Bird flu not part of life in Vietnam
The Star, 9 Apr 2006

HANOI: The smell of roasting chicken wafted out of the open-fronted Happy Life restaurant and into the open road here.

“It would have been a waste of time and money cooking these a year ago, as everyone was too scared to eat chicken”, said Hoang Nguyen as he basted the birds before turning them over.

“But now life is returning to normal. People are no loner afraid, they’re no longer panicking. They understand the situation much better than before”.

The diners agreed.

“Bird flu is a part of our lives now, we know how to live with it”, said Le Minh.

“We’ve been taught that as long as it’s cooked properly and comes from a reliable source there is nothing to worry about”.

The calmness extends beyond the urban areas, said Jeff Gilbert, the avian influenza expert at the United Nation’s food and agriculture organization office in Vietnam.

“I think that even in the countryside the majority of people now have some understanding of bird flu”, he said.

The government had listened to advice, he said, and implemented effective strategies.

Live animal markets had been banned and people given incentives to report sick birds and animals.

The impact has been startling. After 29 human cases and 21 deaths in 2004 and 61 cases and 19 deaths last year, there have been no cases so far this year.

It is a similar story in Thailand. The government covered up the outbreak in 2004 but has learned that secrecy is the worst possible approach.

“If we make everything very transparent and act in a timely manner then people will believe what we say”, said Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak, the director of epidemiology at the public health ministry.

“But if you delay people will always put a question mark against what you say”.

Anyone with remotely suspicious symptoms is investigated.

This year there have been about 800 notifications but not one positive case.

Another measure the Thais have adopted is to train tens of thousands of rural volunteers to monitor any suspicious illnesses in animals and humans.

“Having the same person at the community level chase down animal and human cases makes such a difference”, said Bill Aldis, the head of the World Health Organization in South-East Asia. ---dpa.