# 2475
IRIN News has a pretty good background piece on Egypt's preparations for a pandemic. I've just posted the opening paragraphs. Follow the link for the full story.
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks)was founded in 1995, and is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. While technically a part of the UN, it maintains editorial independence, and its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations and its agencies, not its member states.
EGYPT: Contingency planning for an avian flu pandemic
Photo: Doaa Shaarawy/Save the Children
Specialists raise awareness of bird flu in high-risk areas by disseminating materials on a village-to-village basis
CAIRO, 18 November 2008 (IRIN) - Egypt, the country hit hardest by avian flu in the Middle East, is working on preventative measures to stop a potential human influenza pandemic.
The government, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have put together a national contingency plan to boost rapid containment procedures, and build capacity to cope with a pandemic.
A potential human influenza pandemic could come about if the H5N1 bird flu virus mutates to allow human to human transmission.
Training exercises - involving the simulated conditions of a pandemic - are being organised in all 26 governorates. So far training teams have been formed and assigned to the governorates of al-Beheria, Menia, Gharbiya, Munufiya, and Sharqiya.
Muhammad Fawzi, director of a committee at the Centre for Future Studies - a government research institution with representatives from the ministries of defence, military production, health and population, interior affairs, environment, and foreign affairs - worked with governors to create the plan, based on WHO and Egyptian government recommendations.
“The two main concerns should a pandemic occur would be to keep the functions and services of the state running while containing the spread of the pandemic in the most efficient manner. We came up with a series of probable outcomes in case of a pandemic and from there began envisioning solutions with necessary procedural, executive responses from the state and the governors,” Fawzi told IRIN in Cairo.
