Deadly Bird Flu Strain Confirmed in Niger

By JOHN LEICESTER

PARIS – Niger has become the second African country with confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, a lab official said Monday.

Ilaria Capua, chief of the laboratory in Padua, Italy, said the tests were confirmed Monday and the government of the impoverished West African country had been informed.

The H5N1 strain had earlier been confirmed in Nigeria, Niger’s southern neighbor, and officials had said in mid-February they were investigating whether it had surfaced in Niger.

Experts have been particularly concerned about the spread of H5N1 to Africa, which is unprepared for such a health crisis because of its weak infrastructure. The virus is believed to have spread unchecked in Nigeria before it was identified, and Nigeria’s efforts to contain it have been hampered by a lack of resources and information.

Further tests were being carried out to determine how closely the strain found in Niger matched the H5N1 strain detected elsewhere in the world.

Capua, speaking at a bird flu conference in France, said she feared the arrival of the virus in a second African country was "just the start" of the virus becoming endemic on the continent.

She offered a glimmer of good news, though, saying tests on birds from Senegal had come back negative.

The lethal H5N1 bird flu strain has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic. The disease has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.