Bird Flu Center

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 feared the highly-pathogenic H5N1 virus was to blame for the event.

They complain that the veterinarians are powerless in stopping the wave of deaths among birds. However, there has been no official confirmation of the presence of the bird flu disease in the community.

West Bengal has culled about 160,000 birds so far, with another 100,000 have died from the contagious strain of avian influenza.

Indonesia recorded its 101st human bird flu death on Wednesday, the last in a series of events that marks the spread of the disease through the Asian continent. The latest victim is a 32-year-old man whose source of infection is not yet known.

Tibet is facing its own virus problem, as a poultry farm was shut down and quarantined, following an outbreak of the virus which killed 1,000 birds. Another 13,000 poultry were culled in an attempt to stop the spreading of the highly contagious virus.

India, meanwhile, reports the spreading of the H5N1 bird flu virus to three district of the West Bengal state, where a massive poultry culling campaign has been initiated, leading to the killing of more than 129,000 birds. The good news so far is that no cases of human infection have been reported yet.

The Indian government has completed a wide campaign of testing on thousands of people, as an outbreak of avian influenza sparked worries in the remote northeast. Four boys previously suspected to have been infected have tested negative for the disease however. The joint secretary in the health ministry gave the news to the press on Friday, as thousands of people in Manipur were also checked by health staff after the confirmed H5N1 outbreak in chickens from a small poultry farm in the area.

As poultry culling intensifies at the farm in India where the latest outbreak of bird flu was detected last week, there is dispute over the nature of the illness of one of the farm’s workers. A 40 year old man was admitted to hospital with flu like symptoms, but doctors at JN hospital, as well as those at RIMS, denied he is a case for the isolation wards set up in both of the units. The patient’s relatives say he is appearing to have all the avian influenza symptoms presented in the media. He developed high fever and was taken to hospital by his family, but eventually taken home.

The man regularly engaged in the feeding and caring of the livestock at the farm in question. Although health department staff have taken blood samples from farm workers the results are yet to be learned.

Reports that bird flu outbreaks have been signalled in neighbouring Myanmar have urged India to keep an eye on the situation and step up surveillance measures near the border. Nearly a week ago an international animal health organization reported an outbreak of avian influenza in the state of Mon, southern Myanmar.

Veterinarians are now monitoring poultry health in the areas close to the border and rapid response teams have been set up to intervene at the slightest sign of disease. India shares a 1,600 km border with Myanmar and this is seen by some by a potentially dangerous lapse in the preventive measures instituted in Asia.

A declaration from India’s Joint Secretary in the Ministry of health on Thursday confirmed that the most recent outbreak of bird flu in poultry farm from a northeastern province of the country was due to the most dangerous strain of the disease, H5N1. Health workers have already been dispatched in the state of Manipur to assess the condition of about 450,000 people in the area of the poultry farm where the virus was discovered. As of yet, there have been no reported cases of farm workers or veterinary personnel presenting flu like symptoms.

Two government laboratories separately confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. This comes after India declared itself as a bird flu free country almost a year ago. Two important outbreaks of the disease had previously let to the culling of around a million birds.

Starting Saturday, India has declared itself a bird flu free country, following a positive report by the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory. The report has been sent to international authorities for world wide acceptance of the status. The country has not detected any case of the flu since April 18 and international organizations ask for a three-month disease free period for a country to be considered free from bird flu. The country is to receive credit for strong preventive and curative measures. The country had a strong initiative towards the disease, applying a massive and instant culling campaign in areas where the virus was found, as well as disinfecting those regions and distributing Tamiflu to farm workers and other people involved in the operations. India has reportedly culled 1 billion birds and destroyed almost 1.5 billion eggs.

Encouraged by the lack of any bird flu outbreaks on its territory for the past three months, India is planning to claim the status of bird flu-free nation next month. As Sharad Pawar, Agriculture Minister, declared, the last avian influenza case reported in India was found in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra in May. This makes the country eligible for the status to be given by the World Organization for Animal Health. As authorities declare, the country’s Council of Agricultural research has also independently developed a bird flu vaccine at its Bhopal laboratory.

Rajan Eye Care Hospital was recently the host of a sensitisation program on avian influenza, an event organized by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The Medical director of Rajan Eye Care Hospital, Mr. Mohan Rajan, was conferred the Doctor’s Day award by the public institution, as a reward for his commitment and dedication to caring for poor patients and for his impartial delivery of medical care to all his patients. During the same event, M Balasubramanian, national Vice-president of the IMA and N Muthurajan, IMA State Joint Secretary and Secretary of the Government Doctor’s Association of Tamilnadu, have delivered a lecture on bird flu.