Press Releases 2007
USAID Donates Equipment To Help Fight Spread Of Avian Influenza In Pakistan
12/18/2007
Islamabad - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today donated more than $72,000 worth of personal protective equipment, decontamination and laboratory tools, and poultry testing kits to help Pakistan respond to and contain outbreaks of Avian Influenza.
“Outbreaks of Avian Influenza represent a major public health threat and have huge economic consequences,” said Anne Aarnes, the Mission Director of USAID in Pakistan. “We are more than pleased to work with the people of Pakistan to diminish the threat Avian Influenza poses and to protect the brave men and women who are out there fighting the disease.”
Donated to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the National Institute for Health, the protective suits, respirators, goggles and gloves will be distributed to workers who must come in direct contact with Avian Influenza-infected poultry. The equipment will limit the risk of animal-to-animal and animal-to-human infection during outbreak response activities such as disposing of infected poultry and decontaminating poultry-raising areas.
Pakistan is one of the twenty-four countries throughout Asia and the Near East that have experienced outbreaks of Avian Influenza. Forty-seven outbreaks of Avian Influenza have been recorded in Pakistan in 2007 so far.
The equipment is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the U.S. Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance and to assist with earthquake reconstruction.