Paulina Quintao – The Ministry of Health (MoH) in cooperation with its partners has set up a taskforce to help prevent diseases spread by animals, including rabies and influenza (H1N1 virus).
The ministry's General Director of Working Performance, Odete Viegas, said outbreaks of rabies, H1N1 and Zika had already occurred in neighboring countries like Indonesia and therefore it was important for the relevant ministries to discuss an integrated policy to keep such diseases at bay.
"Sixty-five percent of diseases are caused by animals and we see many communities live with their animals, therefore our main duty is to disseminate information to communities about how diseases are spread," Viegas said at a consultative meeting on influenza titled Human-Animal Interface (HAI) at Hotel Timor.
Viegas said the main responsibility of the taskforce is to educate and raise awareness among communities about preventing diseases spread by animals.
She also expressed concern about the status of family nutrition as the high rates of malnutrition had serious implications for the body's immune system and meant people were more susceptible to disease.
"If we have no appetite, suffer from insomnia and worry all the time, it's easy for us to get diseases," Viegas said.
The government first established a taskforce earlier this year composed of representatives from the ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries, Education, Health, Finance (Customs Directorate) and the Interior, but the team did not succeed due to poor coordination among the ministries.
The Genereal Director for Animal Husbandry at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery, Antonio do Carmo, said the diseases spread from animals like Zika, ebola, rabies and H1N1 were now a global public health emergency.
While there have been no outbreaks of Zika, ebola, rabies or H1N1 in Timor to date, he said these diseases could potentially be spread from neighbouring countries like Indonesia and therefore a clear and integrated policy was needed to establish an early response system.
It's (rabies) harmful for Timorese as many dogs aren't kept on a leash and many kids play with their dogs," he said.
He said often people ignored dog bites and did not seek medical treatment until they had symptoms, but by then it was already too late.
He said rabies was more harmful than HIV/AIDS as it affects the human brain without causing any noticeable symptoms, making it difficult to detect.
In humans it can lead to mental health problems and can make people sensitive to bright sunshine, while infected dogs become aggressive and are also sensitive to sunlight.Rabies belongs to the rhabdovirus family and is spread to humans through the bite or saliva of infected animals, like dogs, cats and monkeys.
The taskforce has already started its project and developed an action plan after receiving technical and financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Timor-Leste.