Recognising the need for preparedness among the EU population’s most vulnerable group with respect to the H5N1 virus, the European Commission, through the Public Health Executive Agency (PHEA), has delegated 5 acknowledged public health institutions in Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Poland, to take on the ECORAIP project.The European COntent for public health awareness of the Rural population on Avian Influenza Prevention is an 18-month-long project aiming to educate the rural population of Europe and provide them with the necessary tools to respond to this public health threat. A major goal of the project is to address the communication and information gap that exists in rural areas through education on the necessary precautions to be taken and the steps to be followed with respect to identifying and reporting possible cases to the authorities. Aside from increasing awareness on avian influenza and facilitating communication and information flows to the rural population, the project has also dealt with the characteristics of the rural population in Europe that could possibly place this group at higher risk of infection from the avian influenza virus.
The 5 project partners have looked at the different risk factors for the rural population in Central-North, South and East Europe in order to tailor specific guidelines that would better reflect each region’s needs. By focusing on the risk factors within the most susceptible group of the population, the ECORAIP project aims to effectively respond to the threat of avian flu
