Four More People Hospitalized In Romania With Bird-Flu Like Symptoms

[DB]

http://www.mediafax.ro/english/articole-free/Four-More-People-Hospitalized-In-Romania-With-Bird-Flu-Like-Symptoms-491575-9.html

BUCHAREST, May 18
Four more people were admitted with bird-flu like symptoms in the Bucharest hospital for infectious diseases, on top of the eleven people admitted so far since Monday. Seven of them tested negative for bird-flu; the others still wait the test results.

Romania has recorded new outbreaks of bird-flu in 29 localities over six counties, one month after authorities had closed all previous 53 outbreaks, the Agriculture Ministry said in a press statement Thursday. The presence of the bird-flu virus has been confirmed in ten of the locations, so far.

On Friday, Romania detected the bird-flu virus in three chicken plants in the central Romania Brasov county, and immediately quarantined eight Transylvanian villages and one town. These were the first cases of bird-flu outbreaks at chicken farms in Romania, with previous cases detected on family farms only.

The chicken farms did not inform authorities of the unusual death-rate of their poultry, agriculture minister Gheorghe Flutur said Monday.

In April, authorities closed the last of the 53 outbreaks active in Romania since the virus was first discovered in the Danube Delta last October.

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu Wednesday sacked for negligence the top two people in charge of the country?s veterinary authority.

Also Wednesday, the head of the health authority in Brasov County, where the new bird-flu outbreaks spread from, resigned on medical grounds.

The three farms sold live chicken to farmers in five counties, while hundreds of tons of processed meat made it to stores in 20 Romanian cities.

Authorities said the meat posed no threat to health if cooked for a long time. However, health authorities have so far seized 325 tons of meat produced and distributed by the three farms.

Flutur said the ministry will ask the government for additional funds needed to disinfect roads to and from the virus outbreak locations, the statement said. On Thursday railroad passengers could only arrive in three towns, but were prevented from boarding the trains from there, all outbound traffic being conducted on motorways, where disinfection and control of the passengers was easier.

Romania must show the European Union by October that it can deal with food safety issues if it wants to join the 25-member block on January 1, 2007.

The European Commission country report monitoring Romania?s progress which was issued Tuesday listed among the four area of concern still to be solved the one of the veterinary control.

li/ap Luiza Ilie, luiza.ilie@mediafax.ro

 

[DB]

Re: Four More People Hospitalized In Romania With Bird-Flu Like Symptoms

So there are now 15 people with Bird Flu like symptoms in Bucharest hospital for infectious diseases.

7 have tested negative.
8 are still awaiting test results.

 

[Susie]

2nd UPDATE: H5N1 Bird Flu Confirmed In Romanian City

2nd UPDATE: H5N1 Bird Flu Confirmed In Romanian City


2nd UPDATE: H5N1 Bird Flu Confirmed In Romanian City


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(Updates to add detail on farms and culling operations)

BUCHAREST (AP)--The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has been discovered in a central Romanian city, bringing to 10 the total number of communities where the virus has been detected in the past week, the Agriculture Minister said Thursday.

Minister Gheorghe Flutur said a chicken in the major city of Brasov tested positive for the virus late Wednesday. Tests for the virus were also being conducted in 27 other communities, he said.

The latest outbreak of bird flu was discovered over the weekend at the Drakom farm in the central town of Codlea, prompting authorities to recall 220 metric tons of meat from stores nationwide and cull all the birds in 20 communities where live birds from the farm were sold.

Two men and two children from Codlea were sent by ambulance to a Bucharest hospital for testing after showing symptoms of a cold or flu. They were hospitalized and tested for bird flu because they could have come into contact with dead birds, Colentina hospital director Adrian Streinu-Cercel said. He said preliminary test results were expected Friday.

So far, no human cases of H5N1 have been discovered in Romania.

The infection at Drakom is the first in an industrial-size farm. Since October, Romania has had dozens of cases of bird flu in household farms.

"The situation is more serious now," said Cercel. "People who have worked in farms are more exposed as there are thousands of birds in a small space."

Prosecutors detained Thursday a Codlea vet who oversaw local farms, along with the owners of the Drakom farm and the nearby Pati Prod farm, on charges of spreading disease. The three are accused of failing to promptly inform authorities that chickens were dying in large numbers on the farms.

Police have also launched an investigation targeting the head of Romania's central animal health laboratory Nicolae Stefan, who is accused of buying bird flu test kits from his son's firm without a proper auction.

The E.U. has banned imports of poultry from five counties in central Romania until the end of the year.

Authorities were expected to finish culling about 50,000 chickens at the Drakom farm Friday and begin culling another 600,000 chickens at the neighboring Pati Prod farm.

Codlea, a city of 20,000, was put under a quarantine Wednesday, with workers disinfecting passing cars and residents prevented from leaving the city for six days. Eight of the ten localities where bird flu has been detected are in the central county of Brasov where authorities have culled thousands of birds in recent days.

The H5N1 strain has spread with migratory birds from Asia to at least 10 countries in Europe and Africa, and scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic.

At least 115 people have died worldwide from H5N1, most of them infected directly by sick birds, according to the World Health Organization.


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-18-061426ET
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