Health and Media listserv update: February 17, 2006

This image was taken on a field visit in a small rural village on the Solomon Islands during a recent Health and Media in-country course focussing on malaria. Course participants met with the village chief and his wife (both in photo), and other village members, to discuss their ongoing battle with malaria.

Image: Chief Kalisto and his wife show off their radio - one of their main sources of health information - most islanders are regular listeners.

How is the Nigerian media dealing with their country's recent outbreak of Bird Flu - the first in Africa? I had asked listserv members from Nigeria to let us know if the media is acting responsibly. Okoye Chukwuma and Fortune Ulu emailed their comments - below.

Please Note: If you would like to contact any listserv members and/or contributors, just send an email to me (click return), include the name of the person you want to contact, and I will forward your message and contact details to whoever you want to make contact with...

(Okoye chukwuma, Editor-General, Abuja, Nigeria)
“It is quite sad that this disease threatens the poultry farmers here in Nigeria.

The government have promised to pay the sum of 250 naira, (an equivalent of 2 US dollars) for a chicken found to have contacted bird flu.

Also, in my view, the media institutions here are trying their best to take advantage of the public’s interest.

On the other hand, many people believe the effects of bird flu are exaggerated. We are being informed that people should and cook all chicken thoroughly. Some people in my community have already refused to kill of their birds – saying that this is another western method of haunting Africans.”

(Fortune Ulu, Print Journalist, Business Day, Nigeria)
“The Nigerian media has been coping with the coverage of the outbreak of bird flu in the country. In Business Day, it takes top priority. Today we have a whole page dedicated to it apart from reports on the front page and other sections.

I have not come across any media sensationalism relating to bird flu in Nigeria. The only snag for now is in the use of the term "bird flu" interchanged with 3 different variants: avian influenza in birds, avian influenza in people, and pandemic influenza.

Our main concern though, is informing the public of what precautions they need to take, how to avoid getting infected, and letting them know that it is safe to eat healthy chicken – and to make sure that all chicken must be thoroughly cooked.”

Following the recent confirmation of an outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus in Nigeria, the Kwara state government has set up a "flock surveillance, monitoring, detection and control team," to prevent the spread of the virus to the state.

The state governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, gave this hint, while commissioning the N16m rice processing equipments in Patigi, Patigi local government area of the state, advising poultry farmers in the state to be on the alert.

Medical experts from Africa's Great Lakes region are meeting in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, to plan ways of countering epidemics in the region. Outbreaks of malaria, cholera, meningitis, dysentery and, lately, the avian influenza are some of the epidemics under discussion in the four-day workshop that began on Monday. Experts representing Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania are in attendance.

Frightened poultry workers on Monday shunned medical examinations for bird flu in northern Nigeria, where the presence of the deadly H5N1 virus which can affect humans was reported last week. Only about 20 of the estimated 160 employees of Sambawa Farms in Jaji, Kaduna State, turned up for a medical screening conducted at a nearby clinic by a joint team of federal and state health officials. Workers told IRIN that many of their colleagues stayed away because they were frightened of being detained by authorities if tested positive.