Wednesday, April 25, 2007

CARE Afghanistan helps communities report and respond to outbreaks quickly

Our AI point person in Afghanistan, Zohra Shamszai just filled me in on CARE's role in helping report an outbreak in poultry in March.

One of CARE's project beneficiaries brought in several dead chickens to a livestock center and CARE took down the case history. The high mortality rate and symptoms pointed to suspected H5N1, so CARE sent the samples to the nearest reference laboratory. It was confirmed H5N1 and within 2 days of the beneficiary bringing in the dead poultry, outbreak response was happening on the ground. CARE followed up with project beneficiaries in the area, reinforcing the AI prevention messages that they have been including in many of their projects.

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