Re: India - Human Respiratory Track Infections / Suspected Human Avian Influenza
Re: India - Human Respiratory Track Infections / Suspected Human Avian Influenza
[Please, readers are invited to confront figures reported in the above post - IOH]
Bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya
About 150 people were treated for fever and upper respiratory infections in bird flu areas in the Northeast. T
he bird flu has also returned to West Bengal after an outbreak in 14 districts of the states in January this year..
CJ: SATISH SINGH
CULLING BIRDS in districts of Assam and Meghalaya is continuing.
Health authorities in Assam and Meghalaya have sounded an alert as about 150 people are reported to be suffering from fever and upper respiratory infections, fuelling fears that the poisonous virus has started affecting humans too.
Segregation norms have been strengthened though no cases of influenza resembling sickness through contact with affected rooster has been detected so far, Parthajyoti Gogoi regional director (North-East) of the Central Health and Family Welfare department, said.
About 150 people were treated for fever and upper respiratory infections in bird flu areas. We have put the patients in isolation wards, even if the symptoms do not point to influenza, he added.
The bird flu virus has spread across six Assam districts with authorities claiming it has unspecified pandemic percentage. More than 2,50,000 birds were culled in the past two weeks in Assam and estimated 1,50,000 more have been ordered to be killed. The districts hit by bird flu are Kamrup (metro), Dibrugarh, Nalbari, Barpeta and Chirang.
?We are concerned over the bird flu virus thinning out to humans as the strains travel on the air speedily,? said Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. ?We want the people of Assam to lend a hand with the veterinary department so that the culling operations are carried out appropriately. If not we might countenance a catastrophe,? he added.
To put off multiplying of the H5NI virus from bird flu struck Assam, the state veterinary department started culling operations late evening on December 14, 2008 at Pilangkata, Maikailu, Upper Kholi and Patarkuchi falling within the three-kilometre radius of Khanapara farm in Assam where cases of bird flu have been detected.
State animal husbandry and veterinary department (AH&VD) director Dr D Khonglah, who is managing the crisis said about 3,000 household chickens would be culled in about four villages in Meghalaya?s portion of Khanapara. Over 70 medical and veterinary staff is serving in culling operations. Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed in the entire Ri Bhoi district to prevent any outburst in the state.
The veterinary department has collected blood samples from birds and poultry from Assam-Meghalaya border areas and has sent them for test to Bhopal.
Besides Assam and Meghalaya, bird flu has also returned to West Bengal after an outbreak in 14 districts of the states in January this year.
Authorities in West Bengal say they have identified the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in thousands of dead chickens. Tests on poultry from two villages around English Bazaar town in the Maldah district have returned positive results, a health official said.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that the birds in West Bengal died of the deadly infection, secretary of animal resources development department, Dilip Chakraborty said in Kolkata.
Culling would begin on Wednesday, the government said. The virus spread to 14 of the 19 districts in West Bengal, which has a population of more than 80 million. However, no human case was reported.
There are many types of bird or avian flu. The most contagious strains, which are usually fatal in birds, are H5 and H7.
There are nine types of H5. They take different forms ? some are highly pathogenic, while some are pretty harmless. The type currently causing concern is the highly pathogenic Asian strain of the H5N1 virus. The H5N1 strain of bird flu is regarded as highly pathogenic and can also cause disease and death in humans. Scientists have discovered four different sub types of H5N1, and there could well be more. However, all are deadly for birds and can cause disease and death in humans too.
Bird flu was thought only to infect birds until the first human cases were seen in Hong Kong in 1997. Humans catch the disease through close contact with live infected birds. Birds excrete the virus in their faeces, which dry and become pulverised and are then inhaled.
Symptoms are similar to other types of flu-fever, sore throats and coughs. People can also develop conjunctivitis.
There may have been examples of human to human transmission, but so far not in the form which could fuel a pandemic.
A case in Thailand indicated the probable transmission of the virus from girl who had the disease, to her mother, who also died. The girl?s aunt, who was also infected, survived the virus.
Though there is no fail safe way of preventing its spread, yet we can minimise its danger up to minimum level. Experts say that proper poultry controls ? such as preventing wild birds getting into poultry houses are vital.
In addition, they say monitoring of the migratory patterns of wild birds should provide early alerts of the arrivals of infected flocks -- meaning they could be targeted on arrival.
There is not yet a definitive vaccine, but prototype, which offers protection against the H5N1 strain are being produced. But antiviral drugs as Tamiflu which are already available and being stockpiled by countries such as UK, may help limit symptoms and curbing the disease from spreading.
However, the sudden death of thousands of chickens over the course of a few days has been cause for panic in
Haryana?s Bhiwani district, as poultry farmers fear that the highly-pathogenic H5N1 virus was to blame for the death.
Moreover, there is also possibility of spread of this virus all over India. Well, it is high time for all concerned authorities to coordinate among themselves and try to check this epidemic as early as possible.
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http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=153249
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