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Nigeria's Bird Flu Woes Reveal Weaknesses To Deadly Virus
http://www.andnetwork.com/app?service=direct/1/Home/$StorySummary$0.$DirectLink$2&sp=l25400
March 21, 2006,
By Andnetwork .com
The five weeks since a deadly bird flu virus was first detected in Nigeria provides a troubling illustration of what can happen when H5N1 hits an undeveloped country with a weak and often corrupt political system and too few resources devoted to health.
Officials have been overwhelmed, responding too late and with too little as the disease spreads quickly across Africa's most populous country and then to its neighbours. Each week seems to bring more questions than answers - How far has it already spread?
Have humans been infected?
International health officials fear the H5N1 strain will evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a pandemic. H5N1's spread to places like Nigeria, where monitoring is difficult, has been particularly worrying.
Nigeria has yet to deploy medical teams equipped to take blood samples and systematically determine whether H5N1 has infected humans living near farms where the virus has been found in birds.
Information Minister Frank Nweke announced on March 15 that eight such teams created with help from the World Health Organization and donors were being dispatched to the field. But as of today, there is still no sign of the teams on the ground.
Nigeria is on a route used by migratory birds passing through Asia and Europe, where the virus had already surfaced. It released an official preparedness document in October, setting up a team of technical experts.
But when H5N1 struck, this oil-rich nation of 130 million people had no laboratory equipment to detect it. One month passed between the first report that many birds were dying at a commercial farm owned by a Cabinet minister in the northern state of Kaduna and the official announcement of the disease on Feb. 8, after samples were tested in Italy.
Even that announcement came at least a week after Nigerian officials were fairly sure the disease was in the country but awaiting final confirmation before going public, Lami Lombin, director of Nigeria's Veterinary Institute, has said.
Few precautions were taken in the month between the bird deaths and the results of the Italian tests. After H5N1 was confirmed, the government was slow to quarantine infected farms, despite repeated warnings from international experts that such a step was crucial.
The first veterinary teams Nigeria sent to affected commercial poultry farms lacked protective equipment.
H5N1 has now been found in southern as well as northern Nigeria and in two neighbouring countries, Niger and Cameroon. North African Egypt also has reported H5N1 - including two human cases, one fatal.
No human cases have been confirmed in Nigeria. Samples from Nigerians with respiratory symptoms and a history of exposure to diseased poultry waited weeks to be sent abroad for tests, with officials citing complications arranging permits and refrigerated transportation.
Abraham Audu, one of the doctors who conducted initial checks - but no blood sampling - of poultry farm workers, said he was surprised none turned up with signs of infection, given the close contact they had with the diseased birds.
"I think it is worth a scientific study to find out why there have been no human infections," Audu said. "Or maybe we're yet to find it."
The United Nations' top official for bird flu, David Nabarro, last week repeated calls on the international community to help countries, particularly in Africa, that lacked the resources to confront the deadly virus. Such calls had been made even before Nigeria became the first African country with H5N1.
The migrating birds that may have brought the virus to Africa may take the disease back to Europe, possibly spreading it even further on that continent, when they return to their summer nesting grounds.
Within the past month, the U.S. Centre for Disease Control has upgraded the laboratory of Nigeria's National Veterinary Research Institute. WHO has trained health workers from around the country on disease surveillance and reporting. With a US$50 million (?41.07 million) special emergency credit from the World Bank, Nigeria has begun stockpiling Tamiflu, a drug that can be used to treat bird flu in humans.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has supplied protective equipment to both Nigeria and Niger.
The Nigeria bird flu situation remains "difficult," says Joseph Domenech, FAO's chief veterinary officer.
FAO argues that the future will depend on the success of efforts to inform and educate Nigerians about the dangers of bird flu and how to protect themselves.
In recent weeks, bird flu information in local languages has been broadcast on radio, the best medium for reaching the illiterate villagers who make up most of the population.
By Dulue Mbachu
http://www.andnetwork.com/app?service=direct/1/Home/$StorySummary$0.$DirectLink$2&sp=l25400
March 21, 2006,
By Andnetwork .com
The five weeks since a deadly bird flu virus was first detected in Nigeria provides a troubling illustration of what can happen when H5N1 hits an undeveloped country with a weak and often corrupt political system and too few resources devoted to health.
Officials have been overwhelmed, responding too late and with too little as the disease spreads quickly across Africa's most populous country and then to its neighbours. Each week seems to bring more questions than answers - How far has it already spread?
Have humans been infected?
International health officials fear the H5N1 strain will evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a pandemic. H5N1's spread to places like Nigeria, where monitoring is difficult, has been particularly worrying.
Nigeria has yet to deploy medical teams equipped to take blood samples and systematically determine whether H5N1 has infected humans living near farms where the virus has been found in birds.
Information Minister Frank Nweke announced on March 15 that eight such teams created with help from the World Health Organization and donors were being dispatched to the field. But as of today, there is still no sign of the teams on the ground.
Nigeria is on a route used by migratory birds passing through Asia and Europe, where the virus had already surfaced. It released an official preparedness document in October, setting up a team of technical experts.
But when H5N1 struck, this oil-rich nation of 130 million people had no laboratory equipment to detect it. One month passed between the first report that many birds were dying at a commercial farm owned by a Cabinet minister in the northern state of Kaduna and the official announcement of the disease on Feb. 8, after samples were tested in Italy.
Even that announcement came at least a week after Nigerian officials were fairly sure the disease was in the country but awaiting final confirmation before going public, Lami Lombin, director of Nigeria's Veterinary Institute, has said.
Few precautions were taken in the month between the bird deaths and the results of the Italian tests. After H5N1 was confirmed, the government was slow to quarantine infected farms, despite repeated warnings from international experts that such a step was crucial.
The first veterinary teams Nigeria sent to affected commercial poultry farms lacked protective equipment.
H5N1 has now been found in southern as well as northern Nigeria and in two neighbouring countries, Niger and Cameroon. North African Egypt also has reported H5N1 - including two human cases, one fatal.
No human cases have been confirmed in Nigeria. Samples from Nigerians with respiratory symptoms and a history of exposure to diseased poultry waited weeks to be sent abroad for tests, with officials citing complications arranging permits and refrigerated transportation.
Abraham Audu, one of the doctors who conducted initial checks - but no blood sampling - of poultry farm workers, said he was surprised none turned up with signs of infection, given the close contact they had with the diseased birds.
"I think it is worth a scientific study to find out why there have been no human infections," Audu said. "Or maybe we're yet to find it."
The United Nations' top official for bird flu, David Nabarro, last week repeated calls on the international community to help countries, particularly in Africa, that lacked the resources to confront the deadly virus. Such calls had been made even before Nigeria became the first African country with H5N1.
The migrating birds that may have brought the virus to Africa may take the disease back to Europe, possibly spreading it even further on that continent, when they return to their summer nesting grounds.
Within the past month, the U.S. Centre for Disease Control has upgraded the laboratory of Nigeria's National Veterinary Research Institute. WHO has trained health workers from around the country on disease surveillance and reporting. With a US$50 million (?41.07 million) special emergency credit from the World Bank, Nigeria has begun stockpiling Tamiflu, a drug that can be used to treat bird flu in humans.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has supplied protective equipment to both Nigeria and Niger.
The Nigeria bird flu situation remains "difficult," says Joseph Domenech, FAO's chief veterinary officer.
FAO argues that the future will depend on the success of efforts to inform and educate Nigerians about the dangers of bird flu and how to protect themselves.
In recent weeks, bird flu information in local languages has been broadcast on radio, the best medium for reaching the illiterate villagers who make up most of the population.
By Dulue Mbachu
No human cases have been confirmed in Nigeria. Samples from Nigerians with respiratory symptoms and a history of exposure to diseased poultry waited weeks to be sent abroad for tests, with officials citing complications arranging permits and refrigerated transportation.
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