Uganda Health News: World Bank gives Uganda 17bn to fight avian flu
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First published: 20080625 9:10:22 AM EST
Ultimate Media
Uganda has received an International Development Association (IDA) credit from the World Bank to finance a four-year Avian and Human Influenza Preparedness and Response project (AHIP) for Uganda.
The World bank announced in a statement today that the US$10 million (about 17billion shillings) will support the country’s efforts to substantially reduce the threat posed to humans and poultry in Uganda by the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), and other diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
Kundhavi Kadiresan, World Bank Uganda Country Manager says that while an Avian and Human Influenza outbreak has not yet occurred in Uganda, there is no doubt that the negative socio-economic impact of an outbreak would be enormous and devastating.
She says the loan is aimed at helping Uganda prevent bird flue from coming into the country and having devastating effects.
Wilson Odwongo, Rural Development Specialist and Task Team Leader for the Project says that though Avian and Human Influenza has not attracted widespread media coverage in recent months, it continues to stir serious human health concerns world wide because of the potential threat it poses if it mutates in ways that would allow sustained human to human transmission.
According to the World Bank, Uganda is among the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that face a very high risk of an AHI outbreak because it is crisscrossed by several routes for migratory birds, which are now known to be the carriers for the virus.
Odwongo says that Uganda is also engaged in a thriving but poorly regulated cross-border poultry trade with neighboring countries which could easily result in importation of the virus.
He adds that the high prevalence of backyard and free-range poultry rearing in the majority of rural Ugandan households also provides opportunity for the free range birds to mix and get contamination from the wild migratory birds, which could be carrying the HPAI virus.
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