Engineer Hani Najdawi, undersecretary general at Greater Amman Municipality for area affairs and president of the Emergency Department against Avian Flu, emphasized that the Minister of Justice has endowed extended powers for all policemen who accompany GAM cadres in detecting the residential areas around Amman and ensure their emptiness of domestic breeding of chickens or birds.
In a meeting with president and members of the health committee at GAM, Najdawi said that the municipality has intensified its procedures and preparedness to maximum levels to ensure there are no such cases affected with the avian flu, in any of GAM districts or neighboring areas.
GAM maintained that the Emergency Department at GAM was fully equipped with qualified staff and equipments since the beginning of this year, where it works around the clock both in field and static operations to make sure that Amman is uncontaminated with avian flu. The department, he said, is working closely with the concerned authorities including the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, together with the Amman Governorate.
Najdawi pointed out that all the bird/chicken farms in the capital are under GAM full control, and these birds are regularly checked by the municipality, which also applies the required procedures and precautionary measures to protect these birds from being infected by the impure ones. Najdawi said that most of the risk lies within the breeding chicken at populous areas.
He noted that all the slaughter houses in Amman has toughened their procedures in the recent weeks to make sure that all chickens and birds slaughtered there are in good physical shape.
The health committee is headed by Dr. Abdullah Daoud, and it has discussed recently the procedures and measures that are applied by GAM regarding the avian flu. More than 1200 experiments are conducted everyday by the emergency staff at GAM taken from the chicken and birds farms and other locations in the capital.
Najdawi stated that GAM is giving high regard to the media and public awareness, where it will launch soon a regular campaign to inform people about the avian flu and how to fight it. He revealed that the Media Center at GAM will hold an awareness seminar, on Tuesday, April 4, at its headquarters where a number of experts will talk about the dangerous disease. The seminar will be open for the media.