Avian and Swine Flu

Avian Flu Control

The Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) started implementing activities to combat avian flu since February 2006 at the level of the central headquarters of the ERC.

Among the achievements of such activity were the following: training of volunteers, preparation of focal persons, sensitizing the society with special focus on the most vulnerable groups such as (housewives – farmers – butchers…etc.).

Various posters and fliers were printed to help in awareness campaigns. This is in addition to the provision of equipment and tools.

Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness

In cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) and with funding from the USAID, an amount of about 5 million Egyptian pounds were allocated for the implementation of this project.

The project involves the development of a contingency plan along with constituting a network to work efficiently within the framework of the comprehensive national plan for the pandemic preparedness and response.

This plan aims at minimizing excess morbidity and mortality as well as increasing community resilience in the three focal areas of public health, food security and livelihood. Two pilot areas were selected to implement the project, El-Nahda (representing the urban area) and Qalyub (representing the rural area) with 500 thousand inhabitants in both areas as target population.

  • Among the project achievements to date is the following:
  • Developing an integrated action plan for the project.
  • Determining the vulnerabilities and capacities within the two areas of the project.
  • Preparing manuals in the three focal areas of the project by specialized experts.
  • Training 900 volunteers according to specific standards and establishing a database that includes all those volunteers.
  • Creating a communication network showing the relationship among volunteers horizontally and vertically and further shows the reporting track in each region.
  • A simulation exercise was done at the central level and another at the field level in El-Nahda.

Learning through Fun to Sensitize against the Avian Flu

In cooperation with the UNICEF, the project was designed to sensitize the primary schools students from (6 -11 years) to protect them against the avian flu through training and educational new methods adequate to their ages. It was funded by the UNICEF in coordination with the Ministry Education.