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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
India faces bird flu 'disaster'
Article from: Agence France-Presse
By Sailendra Sil in Kolkata
January 22, 2008 08:12pm
INDIA'S worst ever outbreak of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu could turn into a disaster, an official warned, as five people were reportedly quarantined with symptoms of the virus.
Eight districts in the eastern state of West Bengal have been hit by the virus, with dead birds being sold to locals who are said to be "feasting" on cheap chicken.
The state's animal resources minister, Anisur Rahaman, said authorities were "determined to cull all poultry in the districts in three or four days, otherwise the state will face a disaster".
More than 100,000 bird deaths have been reported, and teams are racing to cull two million chickens and ducks.
The Times of India reported five people in West Bengal have been quarantined with "clinical symptoms" of avian flu - including fever, coughing, sore throats and muscle aches - after handling affected poultry.
If the tests are positive for H5N1, this will be the first case of human infection in India, home to 1.1 billion people and hit by bird flu among poultry three times since 2006.
Health officials in New Delhi said they were currently analysing blood samples from close to 150 people who have complained of fever.
On the ground, culling teams have been facing an uphill battle with villagers smuggling birds out of flu affected areas and selling them in open markets.
Thirty-year-old Sheikh Ali, a vendor in Birbhum's Gharisa market, 340km from the state capital Kolkata, said the sale of poultry had doubled in the past week, as prices plunged.
"Poor villagers are feasting on chicken. At normal times, they cannot afford to buy as prices are so high. Now they are enjoying the meat," Mr Ali said.
People typically catch the disease by coming into direct contact with infected poultry, but experts fear a flu pandemic if the H5N1 mutates into a form easily transmissible between humans.
Migratory birds have been largely blamed for the global spread of the disease, which has killed more than 200 people worldwide since 2003.
In Birbhum, police seized two trucks of smuggled poultry early today but culling teams were yet to arrive at the spot.
"Poultry owners are smuggling their birds out at night and transporting it to different places for fear of culling," said Shubhendu Mahato, a security guard at Arambagh Hatchery, one of the biggest in West Bengal.
Chicken shops had also sprung up along the main highways overnight with people crowding them.
Neighbouring Nepal, which has banned poultry imports from India since 2006, said its border posts were on high alert.
Bangladesh, which also borders West Bengal, was meanwhile battling its own serious outbreak - with experts warning the situation was far worse than the government was letting on.
"Bird flu is now everywhere. Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms," said leading poultry expert and the treasurer of Bangladesh Poultry Association MM Khan.
"Things are now very, very serious and public health is under danger.
"The government is trying to suppress the whole scenario,'' Mr Khan said, adding that farmers were also holding back from reporting cases.
© Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEDT (GMT + 10).
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left width="100%" colSpan=2>Humans safe from Bird flu in WB , 20 lakh birds to be culled
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=left width="100%" colSpan=2>NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, JAN 22 (PTI)
Fears of bird flu spreading to humans in West Bengal were laid to rest with eight persons showing clinical symptoms of the disease medically cleared while authorities today raised the target of culling poultry to 20 lakh in the next one week.
Blood samples of the eight sick persons from the bird flu affected districts of South Binajpur and Birbhum were tested negative for the deadly disease by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) giving much wanted relief to a harried state administration.
NICD Director Shivlal told PTI in Delhi that three samples which had been sent to NICD, New Delhi,had tested negative yesterday and its Kolkata branch , which tested five samples, confirmed today that all of them are negative for the presence of Avian Influenza.
The state administration set a daily target of culling three lakh birds over the next seven days from tomorrow in the seven affected districts -- Birbhum, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Burdwan, Nadia, Bankura and Malda. Three lakh birds have been culled since the outbreak of the disease last Wednesday.
After Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss slammed the West Bengal government saying its delayed action contributed to the rapid spread of the disease.
"It could have been handled better", Ramadoss told reporters in Delhi but added that "things have now been put on track."
Union Animal Husbandry Secretary Pradip Kumar said in Kolkata that another 100 teams would be added for the culling operations taking the total number of teams to 600 amid fears that bird flue may spiral out of control. He said West Bengal's border with neighbouring states have been sealed.
In addition to the culling teams, 120 to 150 technical teams from eight states including Haryana, Assam, Maharashtra, Orissa and Jharkhand were being brought to monitor the operations to curb the spread of bird flu, Pradip Kumar said after a meeting with Health Secretary Kalyan Bagchi and Animal Resources Development Secretary Dilip Chakraborty in Kolkata.
Kumar hoped the disease would be contained in seven days.
About the bird flu situation , Ramadoss said "Initially there was a delay of nearly a week's time for notices to be sent to us(by West bengal government)."
Ramadoss said screening of humans was conducted within 10 km of the affected areas and all people who live in the villages had been randomly tested by Health Ministry teams.
"There is no reason to be concerned about any human cases of bird flu," Ramadoss said, adding "we are vigilant".
"It is a general thing that if anybody has any fever or anything like that the blood will be tested and till date we have not got any confirmation for that (bird flu)," Ramadoss said.
In Birbhum district, two trucks carrying chicken bound for Jharkhand were detained today at Nalhati as the government has banned movement of poultry from bird flu-affected districts, government sources said.
The Bihar government meanwhile banned import from birds from the neighbouring West Bengal. "We have put a blanket ban on import of birds from West Bengal in the wake of reports of the dreaded H5N1 virus spreading there," Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is also holding the portfolio of Animal and Fishery Resources, said in Patna.
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left width="100%" colSpan=2>Owls die in South 24 Parganas district
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=left width="100%" colSpan=2>DIAMOND HARBOUR, JAN 22 (PTI)
With the bird flu already raging among chicken in seven districts in West Bengal, owls and chicken have been found dead at South 24 Parganas district adjoining the metropolis.
Four owls were found dead at a school compound at Canning, about 64 km from here, and gateway to the Sundarbans creating panic among the people, official sources said today.
Chicken deaths were reported since Monday at Baruipur, Bhangor, Magrahat, Sarisa and Diamond Harbour, the sources said. Bhangor was the worst-hit with 700 chicken deaths reported so far, the sources said. District Chief Medical Officer Sachhidananda Sarkar had yesterday expressed apprehension that the disease might have spread to South 24 Parganas which has large riverine tracts in the Sundarbans area and is visited by migratory birds.
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
ARD officials to disinfect vehicles
Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Jan. 21: In view of avian flu outbreak in some of the districts of the state including South Dinajpur, the officials of the state Animal Resources Development (ARD) department here would launch a disinfection drive on vehicles entering Siliguri from South Bengal.
The disinfection drive would be initiated from 11 a.m. tomorrow near the Muruli Goch road junction at Bidhannagar, some 50 km off Siliguri.
According to Dr LN Bandhopadhya, joint director, ARD Siliguri, as part of the drive, officials would spray disinfectants on the wheels of vehicles.
The ARD officials are using formalin and two per cent sodium hydroxide as disinfectants.
?H5N1 avian flu is an airborne disease and so we have decided to disinfect all vehicles which may come from the bird flu infected districts, including the neighbouring South Dinajpur district. The drive would continue until the state is declared free of the deadly disease,? Dr Bandhopadhya said.
For carrying out the disinfection drive, ARD has formed a four-member technical team, who would also be joined by casual workers from the local panchyat.
The Siliguri mahakuma parishad on the other hand has offered an interim fund of Rs 50,000 for purchasing sprays and other equipment.
The Animal Resources Development(ARD) officials have, however, denied any unusual death of birds in and around Siliguri and have informed that block level teams are carrying out surveillance across the sub-division on a daily basis. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ss=1&id=186960
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
WHO expresses concern in e-mail
Pranesh Sarkar
KOLKATA, Jan. 21: The World Health Organisation has expressed concern over villagers? exposure to the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in West Bengal.
While replying to an e-mail from The Statesman, WHO's regional office for South East Asia made it clear that careless movement of people in the affected areas may result in them being infected by the virus.
The villagers? ignorance about avoiding areas where handling, slaughtering and defeathering of sick or dead birds take place, may be a potential source of the infection.
The Statesman had earlier carried a report which mentioned that illiteracy and ignorance of villagers in bird flu-affected areas of the state made them vulnerable to avian influenza.
It was also reported that the authorities failed to make the people of affected areas aware of the deadly virus.
It has become clear that the state's method of handling the bird flu situation is dangerous for the villagers? health.
Villagers were seen bringing their sick birds to the rapid response teams that would then carry out the culling operation.
Villagers watched the culling process without covering their hands, eyes or noses.
This apart, villagers were handling sick birds in their houses, defeathering and slaughtering them. Some of them even consumed dead or sick birds in affected areas.
Dead birds have been dumped by the villagers without following norms.
According to WHO, these conditions could make villagers of the affected areas vulnerable to the virus. ?H5N1 is dangerous and one should be careful while handling birds, faecal and contaminated materials. Faeces of infected poultry contains a large quantity of the virus.
Gloves must be worn by poultry handlers and villagers ought not to be present in the farms (as we saw villagers watching culling operations on TV) without protective gear where culling take place. If people are careless about their ignorance, they may be infected,? read the WHO e-mail.
It was evident that the authorities have failed to generate awareness among people and let them know about the dos and don?ts in the affected areas. Even when the culling operation started, the villagers were allowed to handle the poultry without protective gear.
Animal resources development minister Mr Anisur Rahman announced a few days ago that volunteers with protective gear would be deployed and they would catch and bring the sick birds to the rapid response teams for culling.
But the order has not been obeyed. Villagers are still handling birds unprotected.
Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra, state health minister, said: ?The materials required to generate awareness in the affected areas were printed on Saturday. These will be circulated soon. Canvassing also has to be carried out in the areas.? http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ss=1&id=186924
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
Bird flu: Slow culling deepens crisis
Monideepa Banerjie
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (Kolkata)
Culling backyard chicken in bird flu hit Bengal is turning out to be a very slow process and the result is only two and a half lakh birds culled in the last seven days.
''No state is prepared to tackle this. We had no idea that this was going to happen. How could we?'' said Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister, West Bengal
The Centre is not pleased with these excuses. It wants 21 lakh birds culled in the next one week and is deploying 150 veterinary workers from outside the state, to supplement about 475 rapid response teams on the ground so far.
''Our concern, the Centre's concern has been, why the disease, which was initially reported to only two districts Birbhum and South Dinajpur has spread to other places. That has been a matter of concern,'' said Pradeep Kumar, Secretary, Union Animal Resource Dept.
The good news is, the culling teams will at least not meet resistance from people who own chicken that need to be culled.
Till even a couple of days ago, village after village resisted the culling process. But now with bird flu confirmed in seven districts and mortality reported from many more, the enormity of the problem has sunk in to the minds of even the most reluctant villager.
''I think the government is doing the right thing, culling the chicken. Otherwise human beings could get affected by the disease and die,'' said Bahadur Murmu, Villager.
Till now, all human samples for avian flu from Bengal have proved negative. But the danger of the flu crossing West Bengal's borders is real and the Centre has sent in teams to Jharkhand and Orissa already to prevent that disaster at any cost.
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
FYI One lakh equals 100,000.Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon BennettComment
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Feast follows ARD team tour
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>OUR CORRESPONDENT</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=172 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor align=left>Policemen accompanying the ARD team in Shibrampur. A Telegraph picture </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Balurghat, Jan. 21: More than 800 households in five villages under the Bhatpara panchayat cooked the poultry they owned and had it for dinner last night.</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story vAlign=top align=right>
The ?feast? followed after a rapid response team from the animal resource development (ARD) visited the area, 8km from here, to collect chickens for culling.
Of the 1,500 poultry in Shibrampur, Dangi, Chakgram, Chakghatak and Chaksaran villages, only 200 were handed over today after a police team accompanied the ARD staff.
The police had contacted the local gram panchayat member, Dilip Barman, and asked him to ensure that the villagers hand over the remaining birds without creating any trouble.
?The ARD staff can come back again, but the villagers have eaten up most of the chickens and ducks because they thought they would not be compensated. It was some kind of a grand feast,? Barman said.
Sujoy Barman, a resident of Shibrampur, said he, like most others of his village, had no idea about the culling drive. ?Suddenly, we saw some men dressed in strange suits and masks arrive at the village yesterday and ask us to hand over the birds to them.? A meeting was convened and the villagers unanimously agreed to cook the birds rather than hand them over to the ARD team.
?Since we heard that we would not be compensated nor would we be allowed to sell the birds in the market, we decided it was better to eat them,? said Sujoy.
An ARD team also met with a stiff resistance in Boaldar, about 5km from here, when residents were told that they would not be compensated. However, an intervention by the police helped collect the birds.
?We had held a camp in the area on the very first day of culling. Subsequent awareness camps were also held. No one came then. Now we have no instruction to compensate to those who did not voluntarily bring their birds to the camps,? said Samir Chanda, one of the members of the ARD team that visited Boaldar.
The deputy director of the ARD department in the district, Sritanu Maity, said till Sunday 67,794 birds had been culled and a compensation of Rs 11 lakh paid. ?We are now doing a door-to-door surveillance and culling birds kept as pets within a radius of 10km of the state poultry farm where the bird flu virus was found,? Maity said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/108012...ry_8809941.jsp
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
No human infected yet, but bird flu keeps spreading
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From correspondents in India, 05:02 PM IST
Nine people checked for signs of bird flu in West Bengal were cleared Tuesday, bringing a bit of relief to harried officials grappling with the spread of the epidemic to a seventh district. Two million poultry will have to be culled now, 10 times the number killed in the first week.
'Four (human) samples tested in our Delhi head office have been found negative to avian influenza,' Director of National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) Shiv Lal told IANS.
'People should not get worried unnecessarily. All human samples related to bird flu have been found negative and we don't have any other sample right now,' said Lal. 'We have given the report to the central and the state government.'
In the West Bengal capital, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) also denied reports that the virus had spread to five people.
'The news of a possible viral attack on five humans is totally baseless. The five samples that were sent for laboratory tests in Pune were all negative and we have sent the report to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). A section of the media quoted me without actually speaking to me,' agitated NICED scientist Sekhar Chakraborty told IANS.
But the avian crisis continues to escalate.
Central government officials had confirmed Monday night that samples from Malda district's Chanchol (Block I), about 375 km from Kolkata, had tested positive for bird flu. On Tuesday, the West Bengal government corroborated the report.
'Chanchol is affected by bird flu. The culling operation will begin Tuesday,' West Bengal Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman told IANS.
With confirmation of the outbreak of bird flu in Malda, now seven districts in the state are in the grip of the deadly viral infection. The six other districts are Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan and Bankura.
About 200,000 poultry have been culled in West Bengal since Jan 16 to combat the deadly H5N1 strain.
The state had set a target of slaughtering 400,000 poultry but, with the spread of the disease to new areas, the government has decided that at least two million birds should be killed, West Bengal Health Minister Surya Kanta Misra said.
More than a million poultry deaths have been reported in West Bengal in the past three weeks.
The state government has allocated Rs.30 million for compensation to those losing their poultry, Rahman said.
Farmers were being handed over tokens at culling sites and asked to contact their panchayat or village block offices for the money. The payment is Rs.40 for a country chicken, Rs.30 for a broiler and Rs.10 for a chick.
The H5N1 virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious and can be deadly. It does not usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces.
Meanwhile in Delhi, speaking on the sideline of the centenary celebrations of the Trained Nurses' Association of India (TNAI), Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said: 'Random screening is being carried out in several bird flu affected districts of West Bengal but no human case has been confirmed so far.'
Several states have banned the import of chicken from West Bengal. The central government has asked the state government to seal its border with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan and directed the state to be on alert over poultry movement across the Bangladesh border.
Ramadoss said several health ministry teams were conducting random screening of people from villages where bird flu has been confirmed or suspected. The screening is being done in 5 km radius around the affected areas, he explained. http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20080122/93142.htm
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Orissa to send experts to bird flu-hit Bengal
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From correspondents in Orissa, India, 05:01 PM IST
Orissa will send about 30 veterinary doctors to neighbouring West Bengal to assist officials in checking bird flu that has spread to at least seven districts in that state.
'At least 10 doctors will go to West Bengal on Wednesday and 20 more in two phases later,' Orissa's Director of Animal Husbandry Bishnupada Sethi told IANS Tuesday.
'These doctors will stay in that state till the bird flu spread is checked,' Sethi said.
A team of scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society, which visited the Chilika Lake in Orissa to monitor migratory birds, also went to West Bengal, an official of the Chilika Development Authority said.
This year at least 900,000 birds, mostly migratory, have visited the Chilika, the largest lagoon along the east coast of India, some 100 km from here.
The state government has alerted officials in all its 30 districts in view of the bird flu spread in the neighbouring state although there was no report of any avian influenza case in Orissa.
Wildlife officials at the Chilika Lake, the Bhitarkanika National Park and the Nandankanan Park have also been alerted as millions of migratory birds have thronged the state's water bodies this winter.
'We have collected blood samples of sick birds from these places and sent them to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal and are awaiting their reports,' a wildlife official said. http://www.indiaenews.com/health/20080122/93138.htm
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>
Culling overdrive after Centre whip </TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>OUR BUREAU </TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=172 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor align=left>A boy plays with a duck in bird flu-hit Margram, Birbhum. Picture by Pradip Sanyal </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Calcutta, Jan. 21: Flu fighters took a big leap today with 350 rapid response teams in the six affected districts culling around 1.5 lakh chickens, almost four times Sunday?s figure of 40,000.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
?Our teams culled 1.5 lakh chickens today. The sooner they are culled, the better. We shall cull two lakh birds tomorrow and more than 20 lakh in the next seven days,? health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra said this afternoon.
One of the reasons for the jump in the numbers was the softening of people?s resistance, which had ?badly hit? the efforts initially, Mishra said. ?People are co-operating. They have realised culling has to be done on a war footing.?
However, health department sources said Union minister of state for health and family welfare Panabaka Lakshi?s criticism had prompted the government to step up the culling drive in Birbhum, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Burdwan, Nadia and Bankura, the districts where the outbreak has been confirmed.
Visiting some of the affected areas, the minister had said the compensation to the owners of culled birds was not being given in a ?proper manner?, hampering the culling process.
State health minister Mishra did not react to the criticism but insisted that the ?compensation was being given on the spot to motivate others?. He ruled out a hike in the amount, saying it was fixed under standard norms.
He admitted, though, that the pace of culling was slow since the virus hit Birbhum and South Dinajpur on January 16.
In Birbhum?s Rampurhat, Nalhati and Mayureswar, among the worst hit in the state, over 90 teams were culling chickens today compared with 50 on Sunday. ?We handed over 25 chickens when the team visited our house this morning. We had heard the announcement on loudspeakers that it was not safe to keep the chickens in the backyard,? said Sahid Sheikh, 26, from Rampurhat.
As the likes of Sheikh stepped forward, the task before officials suddenly appeared easier. ?We are happy that villagers are handing over their chickens. As soon as we got the birds from Sahid, we twisted their necks to kill them and gave him compensation,? said Ajit Banerjee, a para-veterinary staff accompanying the team.
In the Naoda and Nabagram areas of Murshidabad, around teams were on the job compared with 50 yesterday. ?More teams were deployed today to speed up culling. We shall deploy over 150 teams tomorrow,? said Manik Das, the deputy director of animal husbandry department who oversees the Murshidabad district.
Uttam Bagdi, 22, who had initially protested when the team visited his Harimati village in Burwan block two days ago, handed over a dozen chickens today. ?Some elders suggested to me that it was not safe to keep the chicken after 10 of them had died three days ago.? In Kaligunge and Krishnagar, 40 teams went around collecting chickens from villagers, twice the number on Sunday.
Mishra said 24 blocks and four municipalities spread over the six districts had been affected by the virus. The minister, however, made it clear that Calcutta and its neighbourhood were safe. ?I had chicken yesterday and will have it tonight. There is no harm in eating chickens and eggs if they are properly cooked.?
Animal husbandry resources secretary Dilip Chakraborty said more teams were being brought from Assam, Rajasthan and Orissa. He said Rs 2.55 crore had been spent so far to tackle the virus. The Centre has borne 50 per cent.
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=articleheader>Bird flu pockets in grip of fever fear
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=articleauthor>KINSUK BASU</TD></TR><TR><TD class=story align=left>Ishira (Birbhum-Murshidabad border), Jan. 21: Many villagers in bird flu pockets of Bengal are living in fear of the virus, ignorant about it and unaware of the dos and don?ts to avoid infection.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Across Ishara, Sandhyajol, Budhigram, Ustapara and Khameda in this area of Birbhum bordering Murshidabad, villagers have started queuing up before health centres and quacks to ask if the ?new virus? had caused their fever.
In most cases, doctors are either prescribing antibiotics or suggesting a visit to ?specialists? in Rampurhat town, 25 km away.
Adalat Hussain of Ishara, a farmer who also trades in cows, said: ?I and my wife Apela have fever for two days. It is refusing to go. The body ache is worse ? it?s there in the head, in the joints and everywhere.?
A local doctor, Gour Sen, has prescribed Amoxicillin and advised them to go to Rampurhat if the fever persists.
Kamaluddin Sheikh?s four-year-old son Rabikul also has fever. ?He shivers when the fever shoots up,? said the father. ?He is better after a dose of medicine, but the fever keeps coming back.?
His doctor, Nepal Banerjee, has told him that this is a ?new fever? and he should consult a ?boro daaktar (specialist)?.
According to experts, chances of human infection from birds are remote. Only around 300 people have been affected across the world over the past few years. But such figures mean little for panic-stricken villagers.
Many like Mihir Sutradhar of Purul went straight to the Rampurhat Subdivisional Hospital.
Fancy Bibi, the chief of the local Budhigram panchayat, said a meeting was organised yesterday to create awareness among villagers about chicken handling.
At the hospital, superintendent Himadri Haldar said: ?We are equipped to admit patients if they turn up.?
The isolation ward at the hospital has four beds each for male and female patients.
Haldar said: ?We have got Tamiflu capsules, but its indiscriminate use may lead to drug resistance.?
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
h5 killseverything else..
Assam zoo rhino dies of possible anthrax, alert sounded
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From correspondents in Assam, India, 08:00 PM IST
A full grown rhino at a zoo here died Tuesday of 'suspected anthrax', forcing wildlife authorities to sound an alert and take steps to save other animals at the sprawling facility, authorities said... http://www.indiaenews.com/health/20080122/93183.htm
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Re: India - Bird Flu in Poultry/Animals Jan 21+
Boy death leads to panic in Nadia
By SUBHASISH CHAUDHURI
Krishnanagar, Jan. 22: The death of Salim Sheikh (8) triggered panic among the residents of Palashi-Kadamtala area of Kaliganj police station in Nadia.
The death of Salim, who had eaten chicken, also sparked a controversy. The local residents suspect that he died of bird flu while the administration ruled out the possibility.
People alleged that no blood samples of either the deceased boy or his parents were tested.
Nadia administration, however, claimed that blood samples were collected by Berhampore hospital where the boy was initially admitted for the treatment and the report was found to be negative.
In Kolkata, state health minister Suryakanta Mishra also maintained that no bird flu virus was found in the blood samples of Salim.
Earlier, animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman indicated that Salim?s body may be exhumed to find out the cause of death. Moinul Sheikh, father of the Salim, alleged that some health officials in Murshidabad were trying to attribute the death to bird flu.
There was also an outcry over the ban on the sale of chickens and eggs throughout the district. Mr Rehman had said on Monday that the ban will be imposed only in the affected and suspected flu infected areas.
Blanket ban imposed by the police created a widespread resentment among buyers and sellers in Nadia.
In many places, police personnel forced the shop owners to close their shops.
Meanwhile, though culling of chickens in affected areas is on in full swing, death of 16 crows in bordering Matiary village under Krishnanganje block in Nadia on Tuesday created fresh panic.Please do not ask me for medical advice, I am not a medical doctor.
Avatar is a painting by Alan Pollack, titled, "Plague". I'm sure it was an accident that the plague girl happened to look almost like my twin.
Thank you,
Shannon BennettComment
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