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Kathmandu Thursday November 01, 2001 Kartik 16, 2058.
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Global anthrax scare leads to local
precaution
By Razen Manandhar
KATHMANDU, Oct 31 - Nearly a month after the bio-terror of
anthrax started shaking people around the world, Nepal’s postal authorities, too,
have started to take precautionary measures to protect the postal staff from possible
attack of the deadly bacteria.
General Post Office (GPO), the central postal authority that
handles between 50,000 to 60,000 letters and other mail packages everyday, today gave away
protective masks and gloves to its 200-strong staff who physically works with the postal
items.
The postal officials revealed that each of the letters to be
registered from the post office were also checked for security.
Shridhar Gautam, the Chief Post Master of the GPO said,
"Today we distributed masks and gloves to our staff who directly get involved with
sorting the different mails. We have also tightened the posting system as far as the
registered mails for the time being."
Gautam said that paying precaution to the possible deadly
bacteria is better than waiting for the casualty to take place and seek means of
treatment. "We don’t know whether such contaminated mail will come to Nepal or
not.
Since the bio-terror is said to be disseminated by those who
target beyond political boundaries, the possibility cannot be neglected," he added.
The GPO took the step a day after it received the Universal
Postal Union’s (UPU) circular that urged Department of Postal Services to take
precautions while handling and distributing mails.
However, no such measures have been taken for postmen and
other district post offices.
The UPU circular advises special attention be paid to a mail
that is unexpected, addressed to someone no longer with the organization, bears no return
address or one that can’t be verified as legitimate, be of unusual weight, lopsided,
marked with endorsements such as personal or confidential. However, the UPU also says that
people shouldn’t stop using the mail because of these isolated incidents. "The
simple act of paying attention to incoming mail will go a long way in keeping it save and
viable."
Till now, India, Australia, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa and
Israel and the US have traced evidences of anthrax and at least three persons have been
dead.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director General of Department of
Livestock Services (DLS) Shubh Narayan Mahato said the disease of anthrax is rare in
Nepali cattle. "It is just one among numerous livestock diseases that is infectious
but not contagious. Even simple anti-biotic medicine like penicillin can cure it if
diagnosed in time" he said.
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