'They were playing it safe'
2006-02-16 14:36
Lagos - Nigerian authorities knew of the existence of a deadly bird flu strain up to 19 days before informing the public of Africa's first documented case, said a health official.
Experts said moving quickly to kill infected birds and rapidly educating farmers and others on how to combat the disease was a key to containing its spread.
Lami Lombin, director of Nigeria's Veterinary Institute based in the central town of Vom, said on Wednesday that her laboratory technicians confirmed the H5N1 strain's existence on a northern farm "sometime between mid to the end of January."
Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health, known as the OIE, also tested the Nigerian samples and made its findings public on February 8 - at least one week after Nigerian authorities had the same information, but didn't disseminate it in Africa's most-populous nation.
First samples taken from Sambawa Farms
No measures were known to have been taken to prevent bird flu spreading in the interim and it had now affected at least three of Nigeria's 36 states, with five other states and the country's northern neighbour, Niger, investigating suspect bird deaths.
Nigerian agriculture minister Adamu Bello earlier said the first samples were taken from Kaduna state's Sambawa Farms on January 16.
Lombin said on Wednesday that the tests took four days to conduct. Positive results for bird flu might have come through as early as January 20 - 19 days before Nigerians were told of their country's infection.
Public containment campaign
If it was confirmed at the end of January, according to Lombin's outer marker, eight days would have passed before Nigerians were informed and a public containment campaign launched.
Lombin said that only the Nigerian federal government had the authority to make the results public. She said that in not telling the public, the ministry "only wanted us to be sure we were doing the right thing. They didn't keep it secret."
She said: "This is a disease that has a pandemic nature. They were playing it safe, trying to get it right."
Asked whether measures should have been taken as soon as the Nigerian test results came through, even as they were also being processed in Europe, Lombin replied: "I think so."
Public efforts to kill birds
Only after the news broke on February 8 - in Paris, rather than in Nigeria by the government - did health workers launch widespread, public efforts to kill birds with suspected infections and begin testing people who had contact with the fowl.
Remi Oyo, President Olusegun Obasanjo's spokesperson, said the leader learned of the infections on February 7.
Oyo said: "I do know that the president was told about this late on Tuesday and that the same night he swung into action."
According to Oyo, the government had not acted improperly and that the president's office was overseeing the reaction and operating in a "very open and transparent" fashion.
- AP