Monday, September 11, 2006
Council pushes for bird-flu Baguio
THE Baguio City Council’s committee on health and sanitation, ecology and environmental protection, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Health-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Health Services Office, and Veterinary Office, is studying the proposed ordinance authored by Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia meant to prevent and control the entry of avian influenza or bird flu in the city.
Health and medical experts said avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, as a dreaded disease of poultry which affects multiple internal organs and has a mortality rate that could reach 90 to 100 percent often within 48 hours for an infected area. The disease could also be transmitted and cause death to humans, making the virus as one of the most dreaded disease worldwide.
Balajadia said despite the Philippines being free from the disease, the Philippine government has started a Bird Flu Preparedness and Response Plan to prevent and control the entry of the virus in the country. “In support to the National Government’s plan, there is a need for the City to enact an ordinance to sustain local efforts on the prevention, control or regulation on the entry of bird flu.”
Balajadia, being the head of the council’s committee on health, came up with the city’s Avian Influenza Prevention and Control Ordinance whose objectives are to prevent the entry of bird flu, to protect the local livestock industry, and to promote and protect the health, safety and general welfare of the city’s constituents.
In the proposal, the amount of P11-million will be allocated in the 2007 budget of the city, which will be used to fund the conduct of information campaigns on bird flu prevention, containment and control through local media like radio, television, publications, and public community assemblies and the purchase of vaccines and medicines to prevent bird flu.
During the council’s session last Monday, the Council invited Antonio Tabin, city accountant; Dr. Felicidad Ganga of the Health Services Office; Dr. Brigit Piok, city veterinarian; Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, Baguio City Police Office director; Director Pedro Jerry Baliang, DA; and Dr. Antonio Bautista of DoH to shed light on and answer questions relative to the proposed ordinance.
Meanwhile, the DA, the Veterinary Office, and Health Services Office will be conducting regular information campaigns and identify poultry holding facilities in the 128 barangays of the city. These campaigns will include security and bird flu preventive measures and the reporting of cases of high mortality rate of chickens and smuggling of fowls/poultry.
Also, the Bureau of Animal Industry-DA, Department of Agriculture, and the Avian Influenza Task Force started providing advisories and precautions to prevent the disease. The agencies advised residents not to bring in live chickens and poultry products from bird-flu infected countries, to clean and disinfect poultry farm and its surroundings regularly, and to report to authorities any illegal entry of poultry and its by-products. (Dan Ricky Ong)
(September 11, 2006 issue)
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