Priscilla Mazenotti
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Although Brazil still has not had a single case of bird flu, the country continues preparations for dealing with the problem. On Friday (April 7) minister of Health, José Agenor da Silva, announced the government's Bird Flu Prevention Plan (Plano de Prevenção da Gripe Aviária), in the form of an instruction (Instrução Normativa 17) which calls for an integrated government-private sector approach for combating the vírus H5N1 in Brasil.

"The country is prepared to confront this problem when and if it arrives here. A logistics plan is being concluded. We will be ready if the disease appears anywhere in Brazil," said the minister.

Meanwhile the ministry announced that US$14 million had been sent to the Butantã Institute in São Paulo for the manufacture of vaccines and the creation of a strategic stockpile.

The plan includes the distribution of 500,000 CDs to doctors and healthcare personnel with information on the disease and its treatment so that proper assistance will be available (hospital beds and intensive care units, along with medicine) if they are needed.

Translation: Allen Bennett