Possible Avian Flu in Yemen

[pamwv41]

<small>Copyright ? 2003 Yemen Times:
Yemen's most widely read English newspaper | yementimes.com</small> <hr> Al-Jawf worried over wild birds' death <table style="border-collapse: collapse;" id="AutoNumber36" border="0" bordercolor="#111111" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" width="100%"><hr color="#800000" size="4"></td></tr><tr><td width="50%">Yemen Times Staff

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SANA'A, July 23 ? Locals from Al-Jawf asked the official authorities to relieve their fears and worries over the death of large numbers of wild birds, suspecting it to be avian flu.

Different media resources from Al-Jawf quoted some locals from Sahin Wadi in Al-Hizm District, as saying that, "Large numbers of birds, particularly wild doves, were found dead over the last two days under trees and in water."

Locals also noticed that these afflicted birds, prior to their death, were suffering from weakness and inability to fly. Furthermore, they found that they were infected with acne around their noses and eyes.

Additionally, locals demanded that the concerned authorities send a specialized team to the area to confirm the causes for the birds' death, which could be attributed to high temperatures reaching 45?C or to any other disease, particularly because children have been eating the meat of these birds as they are easy to catch. They also pointed out that the decomposition of dead bird remains would affect people?s health and the environment.

The locals tried to inform the matter to the concerned authorities in the Ministry of Agriculture (MA), but they could not as Friday's holiday prevented them. Further, the MA does not have an emergency number in order to be contacted.

Al-Shoura.net published an article relating to the health situation in the governorate saying that, "Al-Jawf Governorate is deprived of all services ? it is considered a source of problems for the government and those authorities in charge ?it is a source of violence? it is also a source of illiteracy, backwardness and money collection? furthermore it is a suitable place for corruption. Absence of development and infrastructure are the main outstanding issues making this governorate appear as if it belongs to the Middle Ages.

"The absence of primary health services, education, roads, electricity etc, greatly affects the nature of life there. Additionally, the governorate suffers from negligence and lack of control over its officials.

"Under utter ignorance, bad situations and corruption afflict most health administrations, illiteracy is dominant in the governorate and diseases kill tens of people every day. The health sector there suffers from carelessness, centralization, lack of qualifications, the administration?s lack of operation and drugs smuggling, as well as the parasite of those who do not belong to health sectors as they did not finish their primary education. Under this situation, the citizen suffers incredibly," added Al-Shoura.net.

"The health bureau has no connection with the people, and locals do not know anything about health except for anti-polio campaigns. The health bureau, consisting of one room, exists within the governmental complex and it is engaged by 33 employees, while the three hospitals in the governorate suffer from negligence and lack of services," concluded Al-Shoura. "Furthermore, more than 80 medical centers are closed or not working. What is important for those in charge of these centers is to receive financial support and salaries. Most of these medical centers have been turned to be residences for citizens or dumps for food remains. People here are fighting diseases and epidemics; they can not find even aspirin in these centers. Such a bad situation is encouraged by the lack of the MA's control and follow ups."</td></tr></tbody></table>

[Theresa42]

Re: Possible Avian Flu in Yemen

Thanks, Pam. Good find! (Doves, again -- doves also implicated in Thailand....)

URL: http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=966&p=local&a=1

[Sharpe]

Re: Possible Avian Flu in Yemen

Thanks Pam. No one should think for a moment that this is anything new to Yemen however. It has been occurring since last October. I have the whole story documented since then. Yemen is a very poor country that is in no shape to deal with this virus on it's own. [It is only 100 miles from the girl in Djibouti who was infected.] I've copied a map, but even this map is not as detailed as it could be of the sheer number of reports out of Yemen in the last 10 months. You will note the Sudan outbreaks, the Djibouti girl, the two suspected bf cases in Saudi Arabia that were never talked about again, and the Ethiopian farm with bird flu symptoms that never told us what Italy said it was. The black arrow is this new site. I give a few examples below:

Here is a report from March:

Wild doves found dead in Abyan
Waheeb Al-Nasari

Dead wild doves found in increasing numbers.
SANA?A, March 5 ? Following the spread of bird flu in a number of Arab countries, Yemeni people deserted eating poultry, fearing being affected with the disease. Official reports confirm that Yemen is free of bird flu. In Abyan governorate south of Yemen, a disease appeared last month and killed wild doves and poultry. Local citizens were panicked; especially as the authorities did not rush to investigate the disease and seemed not to identify it immediately.

Health sources said that immigrating wild doves, which cross the region at this time of year, were among these dead birds. They often mix with other birds such as local poultry and transfer the H5N1 disease to them. However, laboratory reports confirmed that Abyan governorate is free of bird flu. The report of the Central laboratory of the ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation attributed the death of doves and immigrating birds to Newcastle disease which often affects certain types of birds such as doves.

A veteran team had conducted a field visit to the districts of Loder, Modiah and Al-Wadie last Thursday, following the citizens? complaints of the death of many of the wild doves.

Dr. Faisal Awad Al-Dabia director of veterinary in loder, and member of the investigating team said that the result of the examination proved negative to bird flu. He said that there were doubts among the concerned authorities and the technical team over the symptoms of the dead birds. However, they denied presence of bird flu, adding that the rate of mortality among wild doves was not more than 7 percent. He assured that there are other types of birds living in the area and feeding on the same grass, but are not affected. He confirmed that the mortality rate in bird flu cases would have been 100 percent had it been the epidemic. More over it would have affected all sorts of birds without exception.

Dr. Dabia explained that this result which was taken from the blood and saliva of 20 birds and doves secretions were taken prior to birds? death to assure people of the absence of bird flu in Abyan.

The wild dead bird?s phenomenon appeared at the beginning of last February, and its increase worried the citizens as they thought that it was bird flu.

The symptoms of the disease are in forms of exhaustion of the sick birds. They could hardly move and could easily be caught. It is noticed that the sick doves look for water sources. They drink large amounts of water and soak their bodies and heads in water. Their bodies were clearly warm when they are touched with the hands.

Yemen - In Yemen the cases of the mass loss of the poultry are fixed
babelfished from Russian:

In Yemen the cases of the mass loss of the poultry are fixed

CAIRO, 7 March - RIA of news, Igor Kuznetsov. In two provinces of Yemen the cases of the mass loss of poultry are fixed.

As reports to Tuesday yemenskoye Internet-publication "Saxva-no", veterinary service obtains information about the loss of domestic hens in the province Of ab'yan and AD-DALIA in the south of the country.

Furthermore, are individual cases of the loss of cats and the dogs, that ate dead birds, said to publication the chief of the veterinary division of the province Of ab'yan Of noshad of odes.

At present veterinary brigades explain the reasons for the loss of birds.

Publication notes that in these provinces the poultry yards according to tradition are built along the roads, which can increase the danger in epidemic.

Yemen borders on Saudi Arabia and Oman.

http://www.rian.ru/world/asia/20060307/43991171.html

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=926&p=local&a=1

The following is just part of this article.

"The report of the Central laboratory of the ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation attributed the death of doves and immigrating birds to Newcastle disease which often affects certain types of birds such as doves.

A veteran team had conducted a field visit to the districts of Loder, Modiah and Al-Wadie last Thursday, following the citizens? complaints of the death of many of the wild doves.

Dr. Faisal Awad Al-Dabia director of veterinary in loder, and member of the investigating team said that the result of the examination proved negative to bird flu. He said that there were doubts among the concerned authorities and the technical team over the symptoms of the dead birds. However, they denied presence of bird flu, adding that the rate of mortality among wild doves was not more than 7 percent. He assured that there are other types of birds living in the area and feeding on the same grass, but are not affected. He confirmed that the mortality rate in bird flu cases would have been 100 percent had it been the epidemic. More over it would have affected all sorts of birds without exception."[/quote]