14 DAY TRIAL // On Sunday, Cameroon became the forth African country to be infected with bird flu, after the disease was found in domestic poultry in a northern province.
"Some ducks on a small farm in the town of Maroua died and the owner contacted the local office of the ministry for agriculture. Instructions were given to destroy the remaining ducks on the farm, a total of 25 birds, and to disinfect the area. That has now been done," stated Agriculture Minister Aboudakari Sarki. The north province of Cameroon borders to the west of Nigeria, where the first bird flu outbreak was discovered on February 8.
Though all the poultry imports have been banned, merchants traveling on foot, by bicycle or motorbike are hard to control. While the disease spreads, officials are concerned that, alongside HIV/AIDS and malaria which already infected the continent, the African are not prepared to face this new threat.
The government sent a team of experts in the north, near the Nigerian border, on Saturday in order to help to "prevent the spread of the disease and any human contamination." Treatment compensation is not provided to those infected, thus future cases of bird flu may not be reported by the local population.
Experts from the United Nations traveled to Nigeria at the end of last month to monitor the situation. They fear that the lack of expertise and financial resources mean that the continent is not equipped against such a threat.