Beginning today, airplane passengers leaving Brazil for areas where bird flu has occurred will get special information on how to avoid the disease.
Posters and pamphlets will be placed in the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo airports, as well as inside aircraft.
Some of the information is very basic, reports Paulo Roberto Nunes, a general manager at Sanitary Vigilance, but it is important.
People should always wash their hands, avoid contact with birds, and when eating poultry or pork, make sure it is well cooked, says Nunes.
The World Health Organization reports that since 2003 there have been 152 cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in humans with 83 deaths.
Most of the cases have been in Asia: China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. But the disease has also been reported in Eastern Europe and Turkey.
ABr