A young boy playing with chicken at the market (Photo RFA)12 Apr 2006
By Ek Madra
TOUL PREK, Cambodia, April 12 (Reuters) - When her 3-year-old daughter died of bird flu, Choeun Sok Ny expected sympathy from fellow villagers in Cambodia. All she got was abuse after the death drew government culling teams but no compensation.
"Our neighbours are unhappy with us because they lost all their chickens and ducks after my daughter died," the 23-year-old said, clutching a photo album of her daughter, Mon Puthy, who became Cambodia's fifth bird flu victim last month.
"They should care about their lives more than their chickens. But they don't," she said, the tears rolling down her cheeks as she explained the local backlash that epitomises the problems of bird flu monitoring in the poorest corners of the globe.
If governments in countries like Cambodia, where most people have to get by on a dollar a day, do not compensate properly for poultry lost in anti-bird flu culls, villagers will do all they can to ensure possible outbreaks are covered up.
"Next time, they won't be able to just come and cull my chickens if compensation is not settled first," said angry 28-year-old Duch Yoeum, who lost 50 birds in the cull around Toul Prek, a dusty village 50 km (30 miles) west of Phnom Penh.
"I used to sell my chickens for about two dollars each, but now I have nothing to sell," he said, standing next to an empty bamboo cage.
"That girl's death had nothing to do with my chickens. If I am allowed to raise chickens again, I won't bother to tell them when my chickens get sick," he said.
SCEPTICISM
Public understanding of bird flu remains low in the Southeast Asian nation still recovering from the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s. Even Mon Puthy's father, who also handled dead birds, isn't convinced his daughter died of the H5N1 virus.
"I half believe it. I had close contact with my daughter when she was in hospital, but I'm still fine," said 30-year-old Choeun Ourk, who tested negative for the virus known to have infected 193 people worldwide and killed 109 since 2003.
However, experts said the people of Toul Prek, a remote community in rice fields and banana and coconut groves, knew enough to keep quiet when hundreds of birds started dying.
"The village knew about the dangers from these diseased birds, but somehow that knowledge wasn't turned fully into practice," David Nabarro, the United Nations chief bird flu official, said during a recent visit to Bangkok.
Experts were now trying to find out "exactly why villagers perhaps did not confirm to authorities when birds were dying and whether that means the incentive payments for reporting are either not getting through or are not sufficient", he said.
Cambodia asked donors in Beijing in January for $32.5 million over three years in bird flu aid, but the sum is too small to be able to pay culling compensation, said Megge Miller of the World Health Organisation in Phnom Penh.
The consequences are serious for the informal reporting networks acting as a first line of defence against a virus that scientists fear could mutate into a form that jumps easily between humans, unleashing a global flu pandemic, Miller said.
"The recent cases have really highlighted that because there is no compensation, people are being ostracised from their communities and so we get no reports any more," she said.
With the cash-strapped government unable to pay compensation, the best Agriculture Ministry officials can offer is a promise to pay villagers back in kind.
"Compensation is not there, but we are trying to replace their sick chickens with healthy ones for new breeding," Animal Health Department director Kao Phal said.
"If we keeping paying out compensation, what will we do if big farms have all their poultry die?"
"Our neighbours are unhappy with us because they lost all their chickens and ducks after my daughter died," the 23-year-old said, clutching a photo album of her daughter, Mon Puthy, who became Cambodia's fifth bird flu victim last month.
"They should care about their lives more than their chickens. But they don't," she said, the tears rolling down her cheeks as she explained the local backlash that epitomises the problems of bird flu monitoring in the poorest corners of the globe.
If governments in countries like Cambodia, where most people have to get by on a dollar a day, do not compensate properly for poultry lost in anti-bird flu culls, villagers will do all they can to ensure possible outbreaks are covered up.
"Next time, they won't be able to just come and cull my chickens if compensation is not settled first," said angry 28-year-old Duch Yoeum, who lost 50 birds in the cull around Toul Prek, a dusty village 50 km (30 miles) west of Phnom Penh.
"I used to sell my chickens for about two dollars each, but now I have nothing to sell," he said, standing next to an empty bamboo cage.
"That girl's death had nothing to do with my chickens. If I am allowed to raise chickens again, I won't bother to tell them when my chickens get sick," he said.
SCEPTICISM
Public understanding of bird flu remains low in the Southeast Asian nation still recovering from the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s. Even Mon Puthy's father, who also handled dead birds, isn't convinced his daughter died of the H5N1 virus.
"I half believe it. I had close contact with my daughter when she was in hospital, but I'm still fine," said 30-year-old Choeun Ourk, who tested negative for the virus known to have infected 193 people worldwide and killed 109 since 2003.
However, experts said the people of Toul Prek, a remote community in rice fields and banana and coconut groves, knew enough to keep quiet when hundreds of birds started dying.
"The village knew about the dangers from these diseased birds, but somehow that knowledge wasn't turned fully into practice," David Nabarro, the United Nations chief bird flu official, said during a recent visit to Bangkok.
Experts were now trying to find out "exactly why villagers perhaps did not confirm to authorities when birds were dying and whether that means the incentive payments for reporting are either not getting through or are not sufficient", he said.
Cambodia asked donors in Beijing in January for $32.5 million over three years in bird flu aid, but the sum is too small to be able to pay culling compensation, said Megge Miller of the World Health Organisation in Phnom Penh.
The consequences are serious for the informal reporting networks acting as a first line of defence against a virus that scientists fear could mutate into a form that jumps easily between humans, unleashing a global flu pandemic, Miller said.
"The recent cases have really highlighted that because there is no compensation, people are being ostracised from their communities and so we get no reports any more," she said.
With the cash-strapped government unable to pay compensation, the best Agriculture Ministry officials can offer is a promise to pay villagers back in kind.
"Compensation is not there, but we are trying to replace their sick chickens with healthy ones for new breeding," Animal Health Department director Kao Phal said.
"If we keeping paying out compensation, what will we do if big farms have all their poultry die?"
No comments:
Post a Comment