Tweet
Bangladesh is closely monitoring about 100 workers
DHAKA, March 27 (Reuters) - Bangladesh said on Tuesday it is closely monitoring about 100 workers from farms where the H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed in poultry.
About 50,000 chickens have been culled since the outbreak of avian flu was confirmed in nine farms near the capital Dhaka and northern Jamalpur district last week.
[BNo humans have tested positive for the disease in Bangladesh but officials are monitoring the workers just to be sure.
"We have been closely watching some 100 farm workers for suspected infection and if necessary their blood and other samples will be sent for tests," Mahmudur Rahman, a director of the government health directorate, told Reuters.
Blood and other samples of 10 other workers from the affected poultry farms also showed they were not infected with bird flu.
The samples were tested at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research in Dhaka.
Rahman said Bangladesh was adequately equipped to combat human cases of H5N1 influenza.
"We have 133,000 doses of Oseflu, an effective local version of Tamiflu, to combat human-infection by bird flu," Rahman told Reuters.
"These are sufficient, because cases of human infection were very low in the countries where bird flu had been reported so far."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says 169 people have died of bird flu in 11 countries since 2003 and there are fears the virus could mutate and pass easily among humans, causing a pandemic. For the moment, H5N1 is hard for humans to catch and is essentially a bird disease.
Bangladesh's leading drug firm, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, started marketing Oseflu early last year.
WHO officials in Dhaka said they had 5,000 Tamiflu doses reserved for a rapid-response team fighting bird flu in Bangladesh. The team comprises Bangladeshi and WHO officials.
Bangladesh has 125,000 small and large poultry firms producing 250 million broilers and 6 billion eggs annually, with annual turnover of $750 million.
About four million Bangladeshis are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming.
DHAKA, March 27 (Reuters) - Bangladesh said on Tuesday it is closely monitoring about 100 workers from farms where the H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed in poultry.
About 50,000 chickens have been culled since the outbreak of avian flu was confirmed in nine farms near the capital Dhaka and northern Jamalpur district last week.
[BNo humans have tested positive for the disease in Bangladesh but officials are monitoring the workers just to be sure.
"We have been closely watching some 100 farm workers for suspected infection and if necessary their blood and other samples will be sent for tests," Mahmudur Rahman, a director of the government health directorate, told Reuters.
Blood and other samples of 10 other workers from the affected poultry farms also showed they were not infected with bird flu.
The samples were tested at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research in Dhaka.
Rahman said Bangladesh was adequately equipped to combat human cases of H5N1 influenza.
"We have 133,000 doses of Oseflu, an effective local version of Tamiflu, to combat human-infection by bird flu," Rahman told Reuters.
"These are sufficient, because cases of human infection were very low in the countries where bird flu had been reported so far."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says 169 people have died of bird flu in 11 countries since 2003 and there are fears the virus could mutate and pass easily among humans, causing a pandemic. For the moment, H5N1 is hard for humans to catch and is essentially a bird disease.
Bangladesh's leading drug firm, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited, started marketing Oseflu early last year.
WHO officials in Dhaka said they had 5,000 Tamiflu doses reserved for a rapid-response team fighting bird flu in Bangladesh. The team comprises Bangladeshi and WHO officials.
Bangladesh has 125,000 small and large poultry firms producing 250 million broilers and 6 billion eggs annually, with annual turnover of $750 million.
About four million Bangladeshis are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming.