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BIRD FLU SCARE GRIPS DUBAI FAMILY

Another dead bird in Dubai, found in the water tank of a villa in Satwa yesterday, pressed the panic button for residents and authorities in the emirate. Panic struck Ahmed Junaid, a tenant of a villa in Satwa, when his mother discovered a dead pigeon...

in the water tank following a bad smell being emitted from the water supplied into their home. Immediately the fear of bird flu gripped the family.

Following reports on the avian flu outbreak in Kuwait recently, fear and panic has spread among people in the UAE as well as other Gulf countries. Dubai Municipality officials were immediately alerted, but arrived at the villa only late in the afternoon due to heavy pressure to reach out to several venues, reporting daily incidences of dead birds in the emirate.

However, when the DM inspectors arrived on the site, they found the dead bird removed from the water tank and thrown away in the garbage by the residents. As a result, no investigation could be carried out on the dead bird.

According to Junaid, his mother noticed a foul odour in the water supplied to the house since morning. After she failed to find the cause of the stench at home, she sent the maid to check the overhead water tank on the villa terrace. "The maid found a dead pigeon which got my mother worried since the water was consumed by the family. I immediately informed the municipality to come and take away the bird and clean up the tank." Meanwhile, my family members evacuated the villa and moved to a relative’s house until the Dubai Municipality inspectors arrived, said Junaid.

Junaid disclosed that after several attempts to reach the right people at the municipality to complain about the dead bird, he finally made a call at 11:00am on the toll free number of the municipality’s veterinary services section looking into such complaints. "But the officials showed up only at 3:30pm, so we couldn’t have waited to let the bird remain in the water tank."

A source from the municipality said the section received a number of calls every day, reporting dead birds spotted in the emirate. The inspector immediately attends to these calls and rushes to the places as per the order of the complaint. If the inspector’s arrival to the site is delayed, it is because he is busy attending to complaints filed earlier in the day, the source explained, adding that the inspectors are working hard to respond to every complaint in the safety of public health. The veterinary section has deployed 56 inspectors to cover all areas in Dubai and to respond to all calls regarding dead birds and any bird flu-related complaints.

The source urged the public not to touch the dead bird or destroy them until proper investigation is carried out by the municipality to ensure public safety and prevent any outbreak of bird flu in the country. “So far, no cases have been reported in the UAE,” he said, but urged the public to contact the municipality’s toll free hotline number set up specially for complaints regarding the dead bird or bird flu. The number is 8009990.