Africa ready for avian flu

The Southern African Development Community and other world bodies say the region is generally ready to deal with any outbreak of avian influenza. This was the general consensus after a three-day workshop, attended by delegates from all 14 SADC countries, to assess the levels of their preparedness to deal with the possible pandemic. The workshop comes against the backdrop of recent detection of avian influenza in Africa. However, the chairperson of the workshop Dr Modibo Traore acknowledged that although countries had plans in place to deal with outbreaks, they varied in levels of preparedness. He explained that some countries had to be assisted in improving some aspects contained in their plans.