Kathmandu, October 24:

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), with the initiation of the Department of Health Services (DoHS) and the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), will start progarmmes aimed at spreading awareness on bird flu at the village and community levels, the ministry said today.

A meet at DoHS today endorsed the co-ordination between the concerned department under the DoHS and NRCS to disseminate information on the deadly avian influenza and its preventive measures. According to a press release issued here today by the Epidemiology and Disease Control Centre (EDCC) and the DoHS, the meeting decided to revise the pamphlets of bird flu and distribute new ones at community levels. The meeting also decided to moblise local manpower of the NRCS and the DoHS to spread awareness about the avain flu.

The meet was held under the leaderships of Dr Mahendra Bahadur Bista, director at the EDCC, Nicholas Russel, the representative of NRCS and Umesh Dhakal, director of NRCS.

Pigeons not infected: Vet

Sarlahi:

Genetic disease expert and veterinary epidemiologist, Dr Gyanendra Gongol, has said change of season had caused the death of the large number of pigeons in the Manakamana temple. Few days ago a large number of pigeons had died in the Manakamana temple drawing the attention of the Ministry of Health and Population and the World Health Organization. Dr Gongol said, “Laboratory tests confirmed there were no diseases in the pigeons in the pigeons brought by people from different parts of the country to set free in the temple as an offering to the goddess Manakamana. Most of the pigeons died because of the sudden change in the living conditions.” The government has already issued directives to implement the Animal Act to prevent the disease from spreading. — HNS