The World Bank (WB) has agreed to provide 18.2 million U.S. dollars grant to Nepal for avian flu control project for the next four years.

"The program will be launched in January but the agreement will be signed in February," Manas Banerjee, acting director of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) was quoted Sunday by leading newspaper The Himalayan Times as saying.

According to the report, the representatives of the WB, Under- Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Madhav Ghimire, EDCD director and the director of the Livestock Department held a meeting in New Delhi for four days from December 19 in this regard.

"Though no avian flu case has been reported in Nepal as of now, it is better to take precautions," Banerjee said.

"The fund will be utilized in implementing the 'National Avian Influenza and Pandemic Preparedness and Response (NAIPPR)' program prepared by the government," Banerjee said.

The NAIPPR program focuses on planning and coordination, surveillance of human influenza, prevention and containment of avian influenza, health systems preparedness and response, communication and the Ministry of Health's laboratory capacity development.

The Health Ministry, Ministry of Local Development, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives will jointly support the program.

The "International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza" held in China last year had listed Nepal as one of the high-risk countries.

The WB has already committed to providing 500 million dollars for avian flu control globally.

The government had formed a task force to check avian flu in Nepal immediately after the flu was detected in Vietnam in 2003.

Source: Xinhua