Dr. Pierre Duplessis, Special Envoy on Avian and Human Influenza for International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and former Secretary General of Canadian Red Cross visited the National Headquarters on December 6^th, 2007 .

Introducing Dr. Duplessis to the officials of PNS, Federation and IRCS Prof (Dr) S.P. Agarwal, Secretary General, IRCS informed that he holds medical and public health background. He informed the distinguished visitor about the IRCS response after Bird Flu outbreak in India , which included developing Information Education and Communication (IEC) material in 11 languages. “Half a million copies of the publication were printed to generate awareness about bird flu in the community” he added. Other health & care and disaster management programmes and IRCS new initiatives were also discussed.

Dr. Duplessis said that IRCS has a strong base and presence in the country with its 700 branches and 12 million member and volunteers. He further mentioned that IRCS may move faster by strengthening the infrastructural support. He congratulated Secretary General for the Bird Flu initiatives and said that “There is a lot to learn from IRCS which can provide leadership by its achievements in the field of disaster management and public health in programmes”