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No Confirmed Cases of Bird Flu in Humans Yet in India: Report

Posted on: Sunday, 19 February 2006, 09:00 CST

No confirmed cases of bird flu in humans yet in India: report

NEW DELHI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- While samples of dead chickens were tested positive for bird flu virus in India, there are no confirmed cases of the disease in humans so far, New Delhi Television reported Saturday.

The first cases of bird flu have been confirmed in Nandurbar district in West India's Maharashtra area.

Meanwhile, five people in Nandurbar are being diagnosed for bird flue symptoms. Samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology Pune and the results are likely to be out in three days. It is after the results that the picture about the disease, if any, in humans, will become clear.

On Saturday, the animal diseases lab in Central Indian city of Bhopal confirmed that seven samples taken from dead chickens tested positive for the disease.

The lab had been testing samples of chickens which had died over the past few weeks in Maharashtra's Nandurbar district.

Over 50,000 chickens have died in the last few weeks in Nandurbar, a poultry belt.

The government has swung into action and will exterminate 3,00, 000 chickens in 16 poultry farms in the area.

Initially it was suspected that the chickens had died of New Castle disease or Ranikhet, a common disease among laying birds.

But it has now been confirmed that some of the birds died of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

Bird flu or avian influenza is a highly contagious viral disease and mainly affects chickens, ducks, turkeys, quails and wild birds.

It can be caused by any one of 20 different strains of the influenza virus.

The recent outbreaks, however, have been largely caused by the highly contagious and virulent strain, known as H5N1.

The disease can be transferred to humans through direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces.

But unlike normal influenza, bird flu is highly virulent and causes rapid deterioration in humans.

Primary viral pneumonia and multi-organ failure usually set in and fatality rates are high.

As news of the bird flu cases spread, a team from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases rushed to Nandurbar.

Already steps are being taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Chickens are being killed within a three-kilometre km radius of where the positive samples were found.

People in Maharashtra supplied by this belt have been advised not to eat chicken.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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