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South Asia looks resigned to bird flu
April 17 2006 at 05:21PM
By Krittivas Mukherjee
Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia
Mumbai - Bird flu is spreading across one of the most crowded places on earth and, far from being brought under control, looks almost certain to remain a long-term menace in South Asian poultry, officials say.
Since February, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar have culled hundreds of thousands of chickens and shut poultry farms, yet the virus has kept spreading to new areas.
Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia, where hundreds of millions in the countryside live with their livestock.
But fears over the H5N1 flu virus have slashed demand for chicken meat and eggs, ruining the livelihoods of countless workers in India's $7,8-billion poultry industry and even leading to the suicides of nine Indian farmers, an industry group said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and some Indian officials say that once the virus takes hold in any country - developed or not - it is just about impossible to eradicate.
"Has any disease which has come in the last 50 years into India gone away?" said H.K. Pradhan, head of India's only animal diseases laboratory that carries out tests for bird flu.
Worse still is a lack of laboratories, trained veterinary personnel and ignorance about the disease.
Officials admit they face an uphill battle against bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic.
In a region where many have little or no access to stretched health services, a mutated strain could spread rapidly among humans, leaving countless numbers of people to fend for themselves.
While officials might feel a sense of crisis, the reaction of many ordinary people is slowly turning from panic to cautious resignation.
In a region of more than 1,3 billion people, bird flu is just one of many threats they face as they try to overcome poverty, the danger of other illnesses, militancy and natural disasters.
"I hope bird flu does not become part of our lives," said Faiz Qureshi, a young restaurant owner in New Delhi.
"There are car accidents in the streets everyday, but people don't stop driving, do they?" he said, surveying his almost empty restaurant known for chicken and mutton dishes.
In Pakistan, a small number of people, mostly in cities, have stopped eating chickens but the majority seems indifferent to the disease and chicken sales are largely normal.
"I am not convinced there is bird flu in Pakistan. It has all to do with the media," said Shahina Munawar, a Karachi housewife.
India, with 1,1 billion people, is trying to stamp out its fourth outbreak since February and has culled about 500 000 birds and destroyed nearly two million eggs mostly in the country's west.
But the WHO says the gap between reporting dead birds, laboratory confirmation and action on the ground in India was large at about 15 days.
"The gap in reporting dead birds and results of blood samples delays immediate action on the ground and bird flu may spread to further areas," Subhash Salunke, WHO South Asia regional adviser, told Reuters.
Much of the region's poultry industry is unorganised. In Afghanistan, years of war and insurgency, a difficult terrain and shambolic infrastructure have hampered efforts to fight bird flu.
"Bird flu is going on and the killing of chickens and quarantine procedures are going on," said Azizullah Osmani, a senior Afghan agriculture ministry official.
Afghanistan has confirmed H5N1 in a third province and suspects it has been found in two more, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation official said on Thursday.
In neighbouring Pakistan, officials say the H5N1 strain was found in two poultry flocks and after culling around 23 000 birds it has not resurfaced.
"Apparently, the situation is under control, but we are uncertain on many points and cannot be dead sure that we have controlled this problem," said Muhammad Afzal, Pakistan's livestock commissioner.
"We also lack proper equipment and trained people to check those farms, so the suspicion is that it could be hidden somewhere, in some farm."
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have so far been lucky despite their proximity to India but both have closely monitored migratory birds and possible smuggling of poultry from infected countries.
With migratory birds heading back to Central Asia, Sri Lanka could get some relief for a few months, but smuggled poultry remains a worry for the country as well.
There are also serious concerns about Myanmar. UN officials say the country's secretive military regime is facing more than 100 outbreaks in poultry but so far the government has been cooperating with UN teams on the ground.
Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi, Aamir Ashraf in Islamabad, Robert Birsel in Kabul, and bureaux in Dhaka and Colombo.
April 17 2006 at 05:21PM
By Krittivas Mukherjee
Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia
Mumbai - Bird flu is spreading across one of the most crowded places on earth and, far from being brought under control, looks almost certain to remain a long-term menace in South Asian poultry, officials say.
Since February, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar have culled hundreds of thousands of chickens and shut poultry farms, yet the virus has kept spreading to new areas.
Surprisingly, no humans are known to have been infected in South Asia, where hundreds of millions in the countryside live with their livestock.
But fears over the H5N1 flu virus have slashed demand for chicken meat and eggs, ruining the livelihoods of countless workers in India's $7,8-billion poultry industry and even leading to the suicides of nine Indian farmers, an industry group said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and some Indian officials say that once the virus takes hold in any country - developed or not - it is just about impossible to eradicate.
"Has any disease which has come in the last 50 years into India gone away?" said H.K. Pradhan, head of India's only animal diseases laboratory that carries out tests for bird flu.
Worse still is a lack of laboratories, trained veterinary personnel and ignorance about the disease.
Officials admit they face an uphill battle against bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic.
In a region where many have little or no access to stretched health services, a mutated strain could spread rapidly among humans, leaving countless numbers of people to fend for themselves.
While officials might feel a sense of crisis, the reaction of many ordinary people is slowly turning from panic to cautious resignation.
In a region of more than 1,3 billion people, bird flu is just one of many threats they face as they try to overcome poverty, the danger of other illnesses, militancy and natural disasters.
"I hope bird flu does not become part of our lives," said Faiz Qureshi, a young restaurant owner in New Delhi.
"There are car accidents in the streets everyday, but people don't stop driving, do they?" he said, surveying his almost empty restaurant known for chicken and mutton dishes.
In Pakistan, a small number of people, mostly in cities, have stopped eating chickens but the majority seems indifferent to the disease and chicken sales are largely normal.
"I am not convinced there is bird flu in Pakistan. It has all to do with the media," said Shahina Munawar, a Karachi housewife.
India, with 1,1 billion people, is trying to stamp out its fourth outbreak since February and has culled about 500 000 birds and destroyed nearly two million eggs mostly in the country's west.
But the WHO says the gap between reporting dead birds, laboratory confirmation and action on the ground in India was large at about 15 days.
"The gap in reporting dead birds and results of blood samples delays immediate action on the ground and bird flu may spread to further areas," Subhash Salunke, WHO South Asia regional adviser, told Reuters.
Much of the region's poultry industry is unorganised. In Afghanistan, years of war and insurgency, a difficult terrain and shambolic infrastructure have hampered efforts to fight bird flu.
"Bird flu is going on and the killing of chickens and quarantine procedures are going on," said Azizullah Osmani, a senior Afghan agriculture ministry official.
Afghanistan has confirmed H5N1 in a third province and suspects it has been found in two more, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation official said on Thursday.
In neighbouring Pakistan, officials say the H5N1 strain was found in two poultry flocks and after culling around 23 000 birds it has not resurfaced.
"Apparently, the situation is under control, but we are uncertain on many points and cannot be dead sure that we have controlled this problem," said Muhammad Afzal, Pakistan's livestock commissioner.
"We also lack proper equipment and trained people to check those farms, so the suspicion is that it could be hidden somewhere, in some farm."
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have so far been lucky despite their proximity to India but both have closely monitored migratory birds and possible smuggling of poultry from infected countries.
With migratory birds heading back to Central Asia, Sri Lanka could get some relief for a few months, but smuggled poultry remains a worry for the country as well.
There are also serious concerns about Myanmar. UN officials say the country's secretive military regime is facing more than 100 outbreaks in poultry but so far the government has been cooperating with UN teams on the ground.
Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi, Aamir Ashraf in Islamabad, Robert Birsel in Kabul, and bureaux in Dhaka and Colombo.
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