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Bird flu tests at border points

ABU DHABI — By March this year, all the 19 entry points in the UAE will have a common system/procedure for the testing of the items entering the country to ensure they are free from avian flu, an official has said.

Majid Al Mansouri, director of the National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu (NCERBF), said that coordination with all GCC countries would be done to ensure this.

Al Mansouri said this yesterday while addressing the NCERBF’s first meeting of 2008.

“Proper procedures for diagnosing and monitoring bird flu and other diseases transmissible from animals to humans will soon be in place,” the official said.

As early as May 2007, Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, had requested the NCERBF to prepare its assessment of how to cope with avian flu cases and on the corrective actions to be taken.

So far, no avian flu case has been reported in the UAE, although the virus did strike in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. In the Middle East, Egypt also was struck by bird flu, with 43 human cases reported, out of which 19 have died.

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