Mellie
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\24\story_24-4-2006_pg1_5
Monday, April 24, 2006
Bird flu confirmed at two more farms in Islamabad
* Virus is spreading, says government official
By Shahzad Raza
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Food and Livestock confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in two more poultry farms in Islamabad on Sunday.
?Bird flu has been confirmed in two poultry farms in Sihala and Tarlai after a careful examination of the birds? samples,? said Poultry Research Institute Assistant Director Muhammad Amjad.
Earlier, the ministry culled 10,000 fowls in the same poultry farms. The farms were sealed and district health authorities took poultry workers? blood samples. The National Institute of Health (NIH) will test the samples and workers found to have developed bird flu-like symptoms will be admitted to the isolation ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Amjad said that district government officials were surveying areas adjacent to Islamabad for more infected farms. He admitted that the virus was spreading.
Recently, two poultry farms near the capital were sealed after bird flu had been confirmed there. Authorities culled around 25,000 fowls.
Muhammad Naveed, a poultry trader in Dhoke Khabba, was admitted to the isolation ward of Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) with bird flu-like symptoms, hospital sources said. ?Doctors took his blood sample and have sent it to the NIH for further tests,? they said. Naveed?s test results were expected on Sunday, but NIH officials said the final report might take another day.
Dr Birjees, a senior NIH official, said the institute had received around 50 blood samples from suspected patients after the recent scare. ?NIH laboratories have found no strain of bird flu in 80 percent of the samples received,? he said. The remaining results will be finalised soon, he added. (no H5N1 in 40 samples but positive in 10???)
The NIH has also launched a door-to-door campaign in affected areas to stop an epidemic from occurring, said Birjees. The NIH teams check patients with symptoms of bird flu and recommend appropriate action, he added.
PIMS hospital received nine patients, but none of them tested positive for bird flu. The hospital has already discharged six of them.
H5 and other low-pathogenic forms of bird flu cause mild symptoms such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production. The H5N1 strain has spread across Asia and into parts of the Middle East, Africa and Europe since 2003 and 110 people are confirmed to have died. Authorities here slaughtered 25,000 birds and sealed off the affected farms in Charsadda and Abbottabad.
No human cases have yet been reported despite a number of scare stories in the local media and rising apprehension here. Only 194 people are known to have been infected so far worldwide and 109 have died. However, scientists say millions of people could be infected in a human pandemic but with a much lower mortality rate.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Bird flu confirmed at two more farms in Islamabad
* Virus is spreading, says government official
By Shahzad Raza
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Food and Livestock confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in two more poultry farms in Islamabad on Sunday.
?Bird flu has been confirmed in two poultry farms in Sihala and Tarlai after a careful examination of the birds? samples,? said Poultry Research Institute Assistant Director Muhammad Amjad.
Earlier, the ministry culled 10,000 fowls in the same poultry farms. The farms were sealed and district health authorities took poultry workers? blood samples. The National Institute of Health (NIH) will test the samples and workers found to have developed bird flu-like symptoms will be admitted to the isolation ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Amjad said that district government officials were surveying areas adjacent to Islamabad for more infected farms. He admitted that the virus was spreading.
Recently, two poultry farms near the capital were sealed after bird flu had been confirmed there. Authorities culled around 25,000 fowls.
Muhammad Naveed, a poultry trader in Dhoke Khabba, was admitted to the isolation ward of Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) with bird flu-like symptoms, hospital sources said. ?Doctors took his blood sample and have sent it to the NIH for further tests,? they said. Naveed?s test results were expected on Sunday, but NIH officials said the final report might take another day.
Dr Birjees, a senior NIH official, said the institute had received around 50 blood samples from suspected patients after the recent scare. ?NIH laboratories have found no strain of bird flu in 80 percent of the samples received,? he said. The remaining results will be finalised soon, he added. (no H5N1 in 40 samples but positive in 10???)
The NIH has also launched a door-to-door campaign in affected areas to stop an epidemic from occurring, said Birjees. The NIH teams check patients with symptoms of bird flu and recommend appropriate action, he added.
PIMS hospital received nine patients, but none of them tested positive for bird flu. The hospital has already discharged six of them.
H5 and other low-pathogenic forms of bird flu cause mild symptoms such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production. The H5N1 strain has spread across Asia and into parts of the Middle East, Africa and Europe since 2003 and 110 people are confirmed to have died. Authorities here slaughtered 25,000 birds and sealed off the affected farms in Charsadda and Abbottabad.
No human cases have yet been reported despite a number of scare stories in the local media and rising apprehension here. Only 194 people are known to have been infected so far worldwide and 109 have died. However, scientists say millions of people could be infected in a human pandemic but with a much lower mortality rate.