Muslim Brotherhood Launches Awareness Campaign Against Bird Flu

Egypt’s Islamic opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood has launched a public awareness campaign aimed at fighting the spread of bird flu, the pan-Arab al-Quds al-Arabi daily reported on Monday. The Egyptian health authorities have identified the virus in flocks in 13 of the country’s 26 districts. The outlawed but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood has strongly criticised the Egyptian government’s bird flu campaign, dubbing it “a failure”. Despite the measures taken by the government to contain it, the virus has rapidly spread across the country.

“The government’s plan to fight bird flu has been an abject failure and we are about to experience a new tragedy,” the group said in a statement.

The Muslim Brotherhood has appealed to Egypt’s institutions and civil society organisations to lend their experience to the government committee tasked with tackling the crisis.

The outlawed group will announce new initiatives to tackle the spread of the potentially deadly disease at a press conference next week.

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akif is calling for greater transparency over the spread of bird flu on the part of the Egypt’s government and institutions.

Last week, the Egyptian government ordered a cull of all poultry kept in homes. The UN has reported that the economic effects of bird flu in Egypt could be devastating.

Demand for chickens has collapsed. The poultry industry provides work for between 2.5 million and three million Egyptians, the UN says.