Avian Influenza
Like HIV, the avian influenza virus has the potential to devastate children's lives in Azerbaijan. Six people have already died in the 2006 outbreak and similar viruses in the past have killed millions of people worldwide. Unless we prepare as fully as we can, they may do so again.
UNICEF coordinates the efforts of other UN agencies and donors to ensure that they speak with one voice in supporting the government's efforts to contain AI. We have also steered the National Task Force, whose members include embassies, UN agencies, NGOs and high-level staff in key government ministries, and produced a newsletter to inform and influence all stakeholders. Our role ensures that the needs of children are taken into consideration in national planning and that children know how to keep themselves safe.
More directly, UNICEF has run an awareness campaign that reached every state school in the country to teach children about avian flu and general health and hygiene issues. As part of this, 4,660 teachers were trained on how to conduct avian flu prevention lessons and equipped with teachers' and students' books and posters. In partnership with Save the Children, UNICEF also supported a series of weekly television talk shows, puppet shows and community theatre performances about bird flu. These efforts were complemented with a social mobilisation campaign in 80 vulnerable communities lying along bird migration routes that saw young people disseminating key messages in their communities.
UNICEF has also helped train government officials on how to communicate in the event of a major outbreak and worked with media professionals to ensure ethical and accurate coverage of avian influenza and regular broadcast of UNICEF-produced PSAs.
These activities have led to a huge change in attitudes and awareness. In 2006, a UNICEF survey revealed that fewer than 20 per cent of children and young people were aware of avian flu. Follow up studies in 2007 by UNICEF and John Hopkins University found that awareness levels had increased dramatically, to over 90 per cent. Most children were able to describe how avian flu is transmitted, what the symptoms are and how to avoid catching it. Children also described how their behaviour had changed over the past year: now they avoid touching birds, wash their hands with soap more frequently, wash eggs before cooking them and wear gloves and cover their mouths when looking after poultry.
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