ZAMBOANGA CITY - While the Philippines is still enjoying the Avian-Influenza Disease (Bird-Flu)-free country status, the Department of Agriculture in the region wants to keep it by conducting a pre-emergency planning activity with various concerned agencies.
The need to protect the “bird-flu-free” status of the country is crucial with the rapid spread of the disease around the globe, not sparing our Asian neighbors such as Indonesia, Thailand, China and South Korea. With them being infected, the chances of disease incursion in the country are great.
In fact, among the twenty critical areas identified as highly vulnerable for contamination are all the provinces in the Zamboanga Peninsula, which includes Zamboanga City, Regional Director Oscar Parawan of the Department of Agriculture (DA-IX) said, according to the Philippine Information Agency in Zamboanga City.
“All bird-flu disaster preparedness should be undertaken in our level considering our vulnerability,” he said.
Zamboanga City’s proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia, and the illegal trade of wildlife is one of the major routes of disease introduction, Parawan explained.
The workshop aims to provide participants with knowledge on the intricacies of emergencies, its root causes, triggering factors and impact, the formulation process of a contingency plan and devising a contingency plan for the Regional Avian Influenza Task Force. The contingency planning in Zamboanga City will start Tuesday and ends on June 1.
Its end goal is to pave the way for inter-government agency resource sharing to ensure swift mobilization of resources through smooth facilitation and coordination. (Mimi Bern-Edaga)
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