Authorities begin taking action on bird-flu

The avian flu epidemic that has swept across parts of neighbouring India has led Pakistan's Health Ministry to begin putting in place a number of preventative measures.

In a letter sent out to provincial health officials, hospital heads and other health workers, the ministry warned that hospitals should remain on "high alert" and make "emergency arrangements" to tackle any outbreak of avian flu.

On 1 February the authorities confirmed the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus at two poultry farms in Karachi, but with no human infection so far.

Pakistan shares a long border with India, where at least 50,000 birds have been culled in the past few days in a bid to curb the disease's spread.

Pakistan, with the cooperation of the World Health Organization (WHO), has started training health workers in dealing with suspected cases of avian flu.

Two infectious diseases isolation wards are now being set up, with WHO assistance, at medical facilities in Peshawar and Abbotabad in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"We are providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and funds will be mobilised," Fawad Khan, WHO's avian human influenza coordinator, told IRIN on 4 February in Islamabad.