Bird flu reaches India

[Guest guest]

*Mumbai, February 18: * India announced its first cases of bird flu on

Saturday and said 8 people were being checked for the disease after tests on

poultry in a western state showed they were infected with the deadly H5N1

strain.

About 50,000 birds have died in the area in the last few days and samples

sent to a government laboratory confirmed bird flu in Maharashtra, Animal

Husbandry Minister Anees Ahmed said.

 

" Yes, it is confirmed. The disease is H5N1. It has come to Maharashtra. We

are treating it as an emergency, " Ahmed said.

 

Ahmed said 200 veterinary doctors had been sent to the affected district of

Nandurbar. Officials also banned trade in poultry in a 10-km radius around

the outbreak.

 

Union Health Secretary P K Hota said that eight people were being tested for

the H5N1 virus while four more are being kept under observation.

 

" We are testing 8 humans for bird flu virus in the affected area in

Maharashtra. Their blood samples have been sent to testing. Four, including

three children, are being kept under observation, " Hota said on Saturday.

 

An emergency meeting of the Cabinet Secretariat was called in New Delhi, a

TV report said.

 

India is the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world. Livestock and

poultry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country.

 

In Indonesia, bird flu claimed its 19th human victim when tests showed a

23-year-old market worker who died a week ago had the H5N1 virus.

 

His death takes the number of known human cases of the disease worldwide to

171 and the death toll to 93. Two hundred million birds across Asia, parts

of the Middle East, Europe and Africa have died of the virus or been culled.

 

 

The latest Indonesian casualty was not among the so-called 'cluster' cases

Indonesia has experienced, where several members of the same family become

infected by the virus.

 

So far most victims of bird flu globally have had direct or indirect contact

with chickens, but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain

easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.

 

*CHIRAC URGES CALM*

 

Bird flu has also spread deep into Europe with the first likely case in

France--Europe's biggest poultry producer.

 

Farm Minister Dominique Bussereau said it was 98.8 per cent sure that a duck

found in eastern France had died of the H5N1 strain, which is transmissible

to humans.

 

President Jacques Chirac said on Saturday the government will be vigilant

and ready to act on a possible outbreak.

 

" It is a situation which we have to take with calm, but which also has to be

taken very seriously, " Chirac told a news conference in Bangkok.

 

Several wild ducks were found dead on Monday near Lyon in a region famous

for the quality of its chickens. Test results for one of the ducks showed

the presence of bird flu, the H5 virus, and tests for the H5N1 strain were

underway, Bussereau said.

 

Earlier this week, France extended its ban on keeping poultry outside to the

whole of the country, saying there was a higher risk from bird flu following

recent cases in Europe.

 

Austria said it has detected the H5N1 virus in a duck, just days after

announcing the country's first four cases in swans.

 

" One of three ducks taken to a (local) laboratory has tested positive and

therefore is strongly suspected of having the H5N1 infection, " the Health

Ministry said in a statement late on Friday. Results for the other two ducks

were due on Monday.

 

The dead ducks were found in the southern province of Styria, like the four

swans, but outside a protection zone established after the discovery of the

first two cases.

 

In Bulgaria, authorities put a man in an isolation chamber and were testing

him for bird flu on Saturday after two of his ducks died, but said he was

not showing symptoms of the disease.

 

Bulgaria detected its first outbreak of the H5N1 strain in a wild swan on

the Danube River town of Vidin, close to the Romanian border, at the end of

January and has since stepped up measures to avoid it spreading.

 

Denmark, which has so far not recorded any cases of H5N1, said on Saturday

tests on 17 dead birds proved negative. Results of tests on more dead birds

are expected on Tuesday.

 

Egypt, which announced on Friday its first cases of H5N1 in seven sick and

dead chickens, advised people who breed poultry at home to get rid of them

to prevent the spread of bird flu.

 

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said in a statement: " The time has come to get

rid of the idea of breeding chickens on the roofs of houses, especially

under current circumstances " .