System to monitor epidemics introduced

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has introduced Disease Early Warning System to monitor human epidemics, which can easily be adopted for use at poultry farms to detect epidemics among poultry birds at the early stages.
Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan announced this, while addressing the concluding session of one-day seminar organised by the National Institute of Health (NIH) here on Tuesday.
He said that the seminar was organised in the wake of recent Avian influenza crisis with a view to establishing a platform to detect epidemics at early stages.
He appreciated the initiative taken by the NIH to assist the poultry sector and said it was his desire that the institute leads the way in research and technical expertise.
Nasir also said the situation of most of the poultry farms in the country was far from being satisfactory.
The poultry farms must adopt new technologies to keep pace with the advancements in the field. He called upon the poultry sector and the authorities concerned to initiate proper vaccination of the poultry birds.
The minister said that the Disease Early Warning System must be adopted by every poultry farm in the country in view of its benefits and cost-effectiveness. Establishing the system at a poultry farm would cost less than Rs 100.
He also emphasised the need for improving the quality of poultry feed. He said the feed must be contamination-free and must not contain steroids or unnatural ingredients.
The minister said that he wanted to recognise the technical expertise of the scientists and experts who guided both the ministries of health and agriculture in providing the public correct and technically sound information during the bird flu crisis.
Earlier, National Institute of Health Executive Director Dr Athar Saeed said that in the wake of tragic loss of a large number of birds in Avian influenza, a system was needed to be established to detect such epidemics at initial stages.
Meanwhile, poultry production in Pakistan has recorded a significant upward trend, touching the mark of 10 million birds in just one week, renowned poultry scientist and World Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Pakistan Chapter President Dr Mohammad Sadiq said this, while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said that the increase in poultry production has also stabilised the prices of chicken in the open market.
To a question, he said that the poultry industry of Pakistan was still struggling with the bird flu crisis, which caused billions of rupees loss to the people associated with this industry.
Misconception of bird flu virus has completely jolted the poultry business despite the fact that bird flu virus has not infected any human in the country, he said.
The crisis, Dr Sadiq said, has badly damaged the exports of poultry products to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, etc.
He feared that if the current crisis continued, Pakistan might loss the international market and the advantage would ultimately go to India.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international poultry experts have confirmed that chicken meat and eggs in Pakistan were not injurious to human health and advised the people to use poultry products without any fear.
He accused that the Western and local media had magnified the bird flu issue, adding that the scare had badly affected about 20,000 small poultry businessmen.
At present, the poultry scientist said, that farmers were selling chicken far less than the actual rates only to revive the public trust on these products, besides capturing the market.
He said that confusion regarding the bird flu virus sparked among the public after the federal and Sindh governments order to immediately kill over 4 million birds in Karachi in December, which was flashed in the national and international newspapers.
To a question, Dr Sadiq told newsmen that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has conveyed to its member states that a medicine namely 'Relenza' has been prepared by the experts to eliminate the chances of bird influenza.
Glaxo Welcome got the manufacturing licence from the Victorian College of Pharmacy.
The Avian N-5 and H-7 influenza has killed more than 14 people in Vietnam and Thailand last month.