The Vietnamese government and the United Nations (UN) agreed on January 9 to conduct the second phase of a joint program on preventing and controlling bird flu in the country.
Donors have pledged to fund the second phase to the tune of US$16.2 million. Coupled with US$6.9 million they disbursed for the first phase starting from late 2005, total funding for the joint program is estimated to reach US$23.1 million.
The joint program is said to be the first in the world to bring the government, the UN, and donors such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) together in the global fight against the bird flu.
The program will be carried out by the Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Bird Flu under strict supervision of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Ministry of Health (MoH) and other related ministries.
The main objective of the program’s second phase is to raise the awareness of Vietnamese people in order to change their behavior to actively fight against the bird flu epidemic in the country.
The program establishes a funding approach that allows concerned donors to contribute funds in a manner minimizing transaction costs and avoiding duplication.
Also on January 9, the United States, Japan and Ireland pledged to fund three other anti-bird flu projects in Vietnam totaling US$4 million, and of which nearly US$126,408 will be sponsored by the US.
Bird flu outbreaks, starting in Vietnam in December 2003, have killed directly or led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls.
To date, Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu cases in humans, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities, the Vietnamese Health Ministry said on January 8, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid-November 2005. (Local news sources)
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