Bird flu: Museveni calls for quarantine measures

Jan 30, 2017

During a meeting with the Uganda-Kenya Bird-Flu monitoring teams at State House, Entebbe on Saturday, Museveni, also supported the ban on importation of birds and their products, arguing that: “it is not good to cover up a problem.

President Yoweri Museveni has asked the Uganda-Kenya Bird-Flu monitoring teams to ensure quarantine measures in order to contain the transmission of the Avian influenza virus.

During a meeting with the Uganda-Kenya Bird-Flu monitoring teams at State House, Entebbe on Saturday, Museveni, also supported the ban on importation of birds and their products, arguing that: "it is not good to cover up a problem."

"I support the ban on the birds and their products dealings for the sake of life. It's not good to cover up a problem because there many risks. We must address the situation with a key position to the problem as one body. We should ensure quarantine measures by means of confinement to stop further transmission of the virus to domestic birds and human lives that are at risk", he said.

Kenya and Rwanda recently placed a ban on importation poultry from Uganda over Bird-Flu.

According to a statement issued by State House, the Ugandan delegation at the meeting was led by the Minister of Agriculture, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, while the Kenyan team was headed by Willy Bett, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

"The President and his guests observed that Bird-Flu infection was a result of undomesticated bird-migration from Europe and other parts of the world during winter season to Africa in summer," State House officials said.

Museveni said that quarantine measure in suspected spots where migrating birds have settled, especially around Lake Victoria, will curb further spread of the virus.

The President, State House said, expressed gratitude to the joint Uganda-Kenya effort to avert the escalation of the virus.

"It's good that you will come up with joint recommendations to handle the situation," he said.

Last week, Ssempijja said specimens taken from white-winged birds that died on Lake Victoria shores in Lutembe turned positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

HPAI or Avian Flu is an infectious disease, which can also be transmitted to human beings.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the HPAI symptoms in humans include, severe respiratory infections, sickness, non-productive cough and sore throat.

 

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