India/Bengal/Tripura Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

[HenryN]

Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?</ARTTITLE>

22 Jan 2008, 0014 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN

NEW DELHI: India may record its first human bird flu cases if five persons in West Bengal, under observation for displaying "clinical symptoms" associated with the infection after handling backyard poultry, are confirmed to be afflicted with the disease.

All five are residents of Murshidabad, one of seven West Bengal districts to have been hit by the deadly H5N1 virus in its latest outbreak in India, and have been quarantined and administered Tamiflu - the most effective antibiotic against avian influenza.

Investigations revealed that the men had handled backyard poultry soon after the disease infected and killed birds. The outbreak has been traced to small pens maintained by individuals rather than large farms. The men reported influenza-like symptoms including fever, cough, sore throat and muscle ache.

Some of them are also suspected to be suffering from respiratory illness like pneumonia. A special team from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, collected blood and throat samples of the patients on Sunday.

They are being tested by scientists at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata, and Delhi's National Institute of Virology and National Institute of Communicable Diseases - the only three bio safety level (BSL)-III labs in India equipped to test human samples for avian influenza.

The next 24 hours will be a nervous wait for officials monitoring the outbreak as final reports are expected on Tuesday.

Speaking to TOI, Dr Sekhar Chakraborty, NICED scientist, said: "Scientists from our institute have already left for Pune and Delhi with five human samples to be tested at NIV and NICD.

An NIV team collected the samples. All the five individuals have shown clinical symptoms of the disease and also had a history of handling infected and dead poultry. We should complete our tests by Tuesday morning."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Bengal_bird_flu_spreads_to_humans/articleshow/2719341.cms

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Bird flu: Officials asked to collect random human samples

22 Jan 2008,


NEW DELHI: Worried that the vast swathe of the bird flu virus across West Bengal puts human health at grave risk, the Union health ministry on Monday asked its officials camping in the affected districts to intensify door-to-door surveillance and test anyone showing symptoms of flu.

Union health secretary Naresh Dayal said that random sampling of humans will also be conducted across West Bengal, irrespective of proximity to infected areas or whether there is a history of handling infected poultry.

Dayal said: "This is a serious outbreak among birds. However, we aren't taking any chances with human health. The weather is such that lots of human flu cases are being observed. Till Sunday, 707 people with fever in infected districts were tested. None showed signs of lower respiratory tract infection, a must for avain influenza."

On January 15, the H5N1 bird flu virus re-surfaced in India, just two months after the country declared itself flu-free.

The virus was isolated by HSADL (Bhopal) and NIV (Pune) from dead poultry samples in the two districts of Birbhum and South Dinajpur. The virus had killed over 35,000 poultry in 102 villages of Birbhum and 288 birds in South Dinajpur in just seven days.

The H5N1 is still a bird virus. It does not spread from person-to-person. It has shown a fatality rate of over 61&#37; in humans. India has seen four bird flu outbreaks in the last two years. But it is yet to report a single human case.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bird_flu_Officials_asked_to_collect_random_human_samples/rssarticleshow/2719356.cms

[hawkeye]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

West Bengal: Bird flu scare among humans

Sunday, January 20 2008 20:25(IST)

Barrackpore, Jan 20: Fear of bird flu break-out spread in parts of North 24 Parganas, where 15 people, including nine children were reported to developed rashes. Municipality source here today said measles-like rashes that erupted on the skin of 15 people of three families of Navin Palii in Kanchrapara municipal area in North 24 Parganas caused panic here.

While there had not been any official reports on the spread of the infection, Councillor Ira Majumdar said she has reported the matter to Chairman Sankar Basak. Municipal authorities have, however, decided to send a medical team to examine the patients of several houses in Ward No 3, where some patients complained of suffering insect bites from a neighouring house, where the house-owner reared a few hens.

At least, nine residents of the house, where the hens were reared, including three children aged between six months and six years, have also been affected, another victim Jiban Krishna Das, a 38-year old neighour said.

Local physicians, who could not confirm the cause of the rashes, have directed the patients to report to a local hospital, while the owner of the house in question had been advised to kill the hens affected by the insects.

Meanwhile, a veterinary team, from the district headquarters in North 24 Parganas, visited Bilkanda under Ghola police station, where death of some hens were reported on Jan 19.

The medical team has, however, not found any clue as to the reason behind the outbreak of bird flue in that area, official sources said. Similar reports of death of hens from some houses in North Kulberia under Gopalnagar police station came to the district headquarters, source added.

UNI

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01210804/H5N1_Murshidabad_Likely.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Boy dies after eating sick chicken

Statesman News Service

PLASSEY (Nadia), Jan. 21: Selim Malick Sheikh (9), a class III student of Mira Sahid Swaran Primary School of Kadamtalapara in Plassey in Kaliganj block of Nadia died on the night of 19 January within 48 hours after consuming sick chickens cooked at home. He died on his way to Beliaghata ID Hospital.
Dr Bhaskar Samanta, superintendent of the Behrampur Sadar Hospital where Selim was admitted for a short time before being referred to Beliaghata ID hospital said: “I cannot say whether he died of bird flu.”

Animal husbandry minister Mr Anisur Rahman said he had asked the CMOH, Nadia, to confirm the cause of Selim's death. “If need be, the body will be exhumed,” he said. State health minister Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra said: “This is not a case of a human death caused by avian flu. No such case has been reported in the state so far.”

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=186925

[sharon sanders]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

From the FAO:

WHAT TO DO WITH SICK OR DEAD BIRDS
□ Report sick or dead birds immediately to the veterinary authorities (or local
equivalent)
□ Do not leave dead animals lying around
□ Do not throw dead animals into rivers, lakes or other bodies of water
□ If you have a plastic bag, place the carcass in the bag; if you do not, take the carcass
away from the rest of the flock and out of reach of children and others
□ Leave disposal of bird carcasses to the veterinary authorities (or local equivalent) and
help only if they ask
□ If there are no veterinary authorities (or local equivalent), seek help from your local
community to dispose of carcasses
□ Do not eat the carcass of a dead bird
□ Do not sell the carcass of a dead bird


DO NOT EAT SICK POULTRY


BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THE SIGNS OF AVIAN INFLUENZA IN YOUR
POULTRY

If your poultry shows any of the following signs, it may have avian influenza:

lack of coordination (including inability to walk and stand)

ruffled feathers

difficulty in breathing

loss of appetite

depression and droopiness

bluish colouring of wattles and comb

oedema and swelling of head, eyelids, comb, wattles, hocks

watery diarrhoea

small haemorrhages (most visible on feet and shanks)

signs of blood in nose discharge

sudden fall in egg production

eggs with soft shells

http://www.fao.org/avianflu/documents/ProtectPoultry-ProtectPeople.pdf

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01210806/H5N1_Nadia_Fatality.html

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Health: Bird Flu

Sci/Tech | Akanksha Vaidya

We tend to take the term “common cold” quite literally. A sneeze is usually dismissed with no more than a “bless you” and a tissue.
However, this simple sneeze may not be as harmless as we may believe.
Avian influenza or “bird flu,” as it is more commonly known, also starts off with a simple sneeze — leading to something far worse than the common cold.
The bird flu has recently become a major cause of death in Southeast Asia. According to a New Delhi Television Limited press release, the deadly disease is currently propagating at an alarmingly increasing rate in West Bengal, India. Should the disease continue to spread like wildfire, it will soon reach the level of a pandemic.
The H5N1 virus, which is known to cause bird flu in humans, is one of a family of avian influenza viruses. These viruses reside in the intestines of wild birds, such as wild ducks and swans. Wild birds are an ideal host for the H5N1 virus due to their environmental and migration logistics.
While the viruses do not normally harm the wild birds they reside in, they render domestic birds like chickens and turkeys extremely sick.
Infected birds contain the virus in their saliva and excreta, and birds that come in contact with such saliva or excreta also contract the disease. Thus, among domestic fowl, the disease is not only fatal but highly contagious.
H5N1 drew attention because of its growing transmission to human beings.
H5N1 contradicted the earlier belief that avian influenza only affected birds. The disease was first reported to attack humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. A total of 18 cases were reported, six of which were fatal.
According to a Reuters press release, there are 118 reported cases to date in Indonesia, the nation hit hardest by the disease. Voice of America News reported 97 of those to be fatal. “The U.S. government has been stockpiling a pre-pandemic vaccine,” said Anita Barkin, Director of Health Services.
The pre-pandemic vaccine has been made from the genetic material of viruses (such as H5N1) that are currently circulating. The difficulty with producing such vaccines is that the virus can mutate and form a new strain, thus rendering previously produced vaccines useless.
A similar problem is encountered while administering anti-virals to affected patients.
“The concern is that if we use anti-virals like Tamiflu to treat a large number of patients, resistant strains of the virus could occur and the anti-virals would no longer be effective. What might end up being effective in the end is a cocktail of anti-virals,” said Barkin.
Having said that, statistics that indicate that the bird flu is localized to East Asia can be rather misleading. In fact, in 2006 the H5N1 virus was detected in wild swans in Michigan. The globalization of the disease is a result of migratory birds carrying the disease with them to different parts of the world.
Although bird flu is contagious among the bird species, it does not spread from one human being to another.
“The cases that have occurred today have occurred in places where [people] have had close contact with infected birds or have been involved in the butchering of birds and the handling of raw meat,” she said. Thoroughly- cooked meat is safe to eat and handle, so it is important to make sure that meat isn’t raw or partially cooked before consumption, Barkin said.
In addition to watching out for infected animals or undercooked meat, regular health check-ups could prove to be lifesavers. It doesn’t matter where you live — finding out the reason behind that sneeze could save your life.

http://www.thetartan.org/2008/1/21/scitech/birdflu

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Fear fever grips flu villages

KINSUK BASU

Ishira (Birbhum-Murshidabad border), Jan. 21: Many villagers in the bird flu pockets are living in fear of the virus, ignorant about it and unaware of the dos and don?ts to avoid infection.

Across Ishira, Sandhyajol, Budhigram, Ustapara and Khameda in this area of Birbhum bordering Murshidabad, villagers have started queuing up before health centres and quacks to ask if the ?new virus? had caused their fever.

In most cases, doctors are either prescribing antibiotics or suggesting a visit to ?specialists? in Rampurhat town, 25 km away.

Adalat Hussain of Ishira, a farmer who also trades in cows, said: ?I and my wife Apela have fever for two days. It is refusing to go. The body ache is worse ? it?s there in the head, in the joints and everywhere.?

A local doctor, Gour Sen, has prescribed Amoxicillin and advised them to go to Rampurhat if the fever persists.

Kamaluddin Sheikh?s four-year-old son Rabikul also has fever. ?He shivers when the fever shoots up,? said the father. ?He is better after a dose of medicine, but the fever keeps coming back.?

His doctor, Nepal Banerjee, has told him that this is a ?new fever? and he should consult a ?boro daaktar (specialist)?.

According to experts, chances of human infection from birds are remote. Only around 300 people have been affected across the world over the past few years. But such figures mean little for panic-stricken villagers.

Many like Mihir Sutradhar of Purul went straight to the Rampurhat Subdivisional Hospital.

Fancy Bibi, the chief of the local Budhigram panchayat, said a meeting was organised yesterday to create awareness among villagers about chicken handling. ?We are trying, but there is little support from the administration. People are feeling apprehensive, though they may be having the everyday fever,? Fancy said.

At the hospital, superintendent Himadri Haldar said: ?We are equipped to admit patients if they turn up.?

The isolation ward at the hospital has four beds each for male and female patients.

Haldar said: ?We have got Tamiflu capsules, but its indiscriminate use may lead to drug resistance.?

A camp has been set up on the ground floor of the BDO?s office in Margram, where doctors are attending to people running temperature and complaining of body ache.

Health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra said in Calcutta that 600 people with fever, cough and respiratory distress had been treated at health centres in bird flu-hit pockets. ?No one is suspected to be suffering from bird flu,? he added.

The health department today sent 15 ventilators to hospitals where isolation wards have been set up.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080122/jsp/bengal/story_8812146.jsp#

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bengal bird flu spreads to humans?

Probe into boy death

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Krishnagar, Jan. 21: A 10-year-old boy who had fever died yesterday in Plassey, Nadia.

The area is not in the bird flu zone and doctors said there was no immediate reason to suspect the disease.

But district health authorities have ordered a probe because Samirul Sheikh?s family rears chickens.

On Friday evening, the Class IV student told his parents that he was feeling ill. His condition started deteriorating that night.

?We brought a quack but he couldn?t improve his condition. On Saturday morning, I took Samirul to the Kaligunj block hospital,? said the boy?s father, Manirul, a resident of PWD More, 150km from Calcutta.

Block medical officer Manas Bhattacharjee said Samirul had 104-degree Fahrenheit fever and stomach pain. His blood sugar level had shot up to 260, 120 above normal

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080122/jsp/bengal/story_8812145.jsp

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

Government of India
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Status Report on Avian Influenza in West Bengal

(

As on 21.1.2008)

Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Govt. of India has notified Avian Influenza in poultry in 13 blocks and one Municipal area in 6 districts, namely Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Bankura and Burdwan.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken following actions.
<DIR><DIR>? Six central rapid response teams of this Ministry are assisting the State health authorities in containment operations in the affected areas.

? Birbhum:

<DIR><DIR>�� The surveillance teams are conducting active surveillance in 0-3 Km area and in 3-10 Km Zone.

�� The Surveillance teams are covering a population of 24,421 on daily basis in 0-3 Km area.

�� In 3-10 Km area they have covered a population of 10,327 on 20.1.2008. The cumulative population covered in this zone is 51,289. The total population in this zone is 1,51,348.

�� During the survey the teams have found 700 persons having Fever/URI

�� No suspected human cases of Avian Influenza has been detected

</DIR></DIR>On 20.1.2008 a total of 334 animal health workers [veterinary surgeon, poultry workers, cullers, spraying workers etc.] and 190 Health personnel [medical officers, health supervisors and health workers] have been medically examined. The personnel involved in the containment operations are under the cover of Tamiflu and are under medical supervision.

? In South Dinajpur District:

<DIR><DIR>�� Culling operations are underway in the affected areas.

�� Surveillance operations have been started in 0-10 Km area.

�� A total of 25 surveillance teams under the supervision of one medical officer have started daily surveillance in the entire population. Population surveyed is 31,595 in 0-3 Km area.

�� During the survey the teams have found 71 persons having Fever/URI

�� A total of 287 animal health workers [veterinary surgeon, poultry workers, cullers, spraying workers etc.] and 187 Health personnel [medical officers, health supervisors and health workers] and 71 hospital staff have been medically examined. The personnel involved in the containment

operations are under the cover of Tamiflu and are under medical supervision.

�� No suspected human cases of Avian Influenza have been detected.

</DIR></DIR>? In Murshidabad District:

<DIR><DIR>�� Surveillance activities are going on in the district.

�� Total population in 0-3 Km area is 19652 and between 3-10 Km area the population is 76522.

�� No suspected human cases of Avian Influenza have been detected

</DIR></DIR>? MOHFW has supplied 20,000 capsules of Tamiflu, 2500 personal protective equipments, 2500 N-95 masks and 5 ventilators. This is in addition to 10 ventilators and 10 semi automatic analysers supplied earlier.

? Additional supplies of 1,00,000 capsules of Tamiflu, 2500 personal protective equipments, 2500 N-95 masks are being sent to the State Govt.

? Two more central teams from MOHFW have reached West Bengal and reaching the affected districts to assist the State health authorities.

? Central Teams to Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram have also reached and are reviewing the preparedness measures.
</DIR></DIR>The situation is being monitored on a daily basis.

http://www.mohfw.nic.in/Status%20Report%20on%20Avian%20Influenza%20in%20West%20Bengal-21.1.2008.pdf

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01220802/H5N1_Culler_Cluster.html

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Bengal Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

Five people have 'bird flu symptoms' in India

KOLKATA, India (AFP) - Five people have been quarantined in eastern India with "clinical symptoms" of deadly avian flu following the country's worst ever outbreak of the virus, reports said Tuesday.

All are residents of West Bengal state and are suffering from fever, cough, sore throat and muscle ache after handling affected poultry, the Times of India reported.

If the tests are positive, this will be the first case of human infection due to the deadly H5N1 strain in India, home to 1.1 billion people and hit by bird flu among poultry three times since 2006.

The five have been given antivirals as authorities await results of blood tests, the report said.

People typically catch the disease by coming into direct contact with infected poultry, but experts fear a flu pandemic if the H5N1 mutates into a form easily transmissible between humans.

Eight districts in West Bengal have been hit by the virus, with authorities reporting over 100,000 bird deaths and teams trying to cull 700,000 chickens and ducks.

But villagers have also been seen eating chickens killed by bird flu, or otherwise selling the meat at cheap prices.

Migratory birds have been largely blamed for the global spread of the disease, which has killed more than 200 people worldwide since 2003.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080122/wl_sthasia_afp/healthfluindia

[HenryN]

Re: Bengal Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

<TABLE class=contentpaneopen><TBODY><TR><TD class=contentheading width="100%">Bird flu spreads in West Bengal, other states cautious </TD><TD class=buttonheading align=right width="100%"> </TD><TD class=buttonheading align=right width="100%"> </TD><TD class=buttonheading align=right width="100%"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><FORM action=index.php method=post>User Rating: / 0
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<!-- google_ad_section_start -->Kolkata, Jan 22 (IANS) With the bird flu spreading to a seventh district, authorities in West Bengal Tuesday set a target to cull two million poultry amid a false alarm that the virus might have infected five people.
The National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) here has vehemently denied reports of five people being possibly infected by the virus.
"The news of a possible viral attack on five humans is totally baseless. The five samples that were sent for laboratory tests in Pune were all negative and we have sent the report to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). A section of the media quoted me without actually speaking to me," agitated NICED scientist Sekhar Chakraborty told IANS.
But the crisis continues.
Central government officials had confirmed Monday night that samples from Malda district's Chanchol (Block I), about 375 km from here, had tested positive for bird flu. On Tuesday, the West Bengal government corroborated the news.
"Chanchol is affected by bird flu. The culling operation would begin from Tuesday," West Bengal Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman told IANS.
With confirmation of the outbreak of bird flu in Malda, now seven districts in the state are in the grip of the deadly viral infection. The six other districts are Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan and Bankura.
About 200,000 poultry birds have been culled in West Bengal since Wednesday to combat the deadly H5N1 strain.
The state had set a target of slaughtering 400,000 poultry but, with the spread of the disease to new areas, the government has decided that at least two million birds should be killed, West Bengal Health Minister Surya Kanta Misra said.

As the spread of bird flu outpaces culling in West Bengal, the deadly virus is taking human lives indirectly.
Reports said 28-year-old Ananda Haldar of Malda district committed suicide Sunday by jumping in front of a train. He was driven to desperation by the fall in sale of chickens.
Ananda had not sold a single bird since the outbreak and was depressed, his elder brother Prabhat said. Ananda had taken a loan of Rs.20,000 from a moneylender to stock up on broilers but the falling sales had left him devastated.
More than a million poultry deaths were reported in West Bengal in the past three weeks.
The state government has allocated Rs.30 million for compensation to those losing their poultry, Rahman said.
Farmers were being handed over tokens at culling sites and asked to contact their panchayat or village block offices for the money. The payment is Rs.40 for a country chicken, Rs.30 for a broiler and Rs.10 for a chick.
The H5N1 virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious and can be deadly. It does not usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.
<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- joscomment --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11397&Itemid=88&limit=1&limitstart=1

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bengal Bird Flu Spread to Humans?

Human samples test negative for bird flu in WB

Tuesday, 22 January , 2008, 12:39

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday allayed fears of bird flu spreading to human beings in West Bengal, saying random testing of people in the affected areas has been carried out and all such samples have tested negative.

"It is a general thing that if anybody has any fever or anything like that the blood will be tested and till date we have not got any confirmation for that (bird flu)," Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14592838