Avian flu has caused 62 deaths out of the 121 cases reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the last two years. The highly virulent strain of the flu virus causes multi-organ failure and

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The highly pathogenic avian influenza could reach new areas in the state after the state animal husbandry department officials received reports that poultry owners of the notified areas in Malda have

Speakers at a workshop yesterday called for raising awareness among the people in controlling communicable and non-communicable diseases including malnutrition problem.

The spotting of nearly 100 dead chickens on Sunday at two spots near the famous Buddhist pilgrimage site of Sarnath has triggered a bird flu scare in the area. The birds were seen lying along the Varanasi-Ghazipur railway track in Lohia Nagar area under the Sarnath police station. The locals informed the State Animal Husbandry Department, and a team, led by Chief Veterinary Officer (Varanasi) B B Sings, visited the spot. The owner of a nearby poultry farm, Sudhir Singh, has been detained for questioning by the police. Officials also visited the farm, where they found 21 live birds. CVO Sings said the farm owner had denied that the dead birds belonged to his farm. It was while they were making preparations to bury the dead birds and to collect serum and blood samples of the birds alive, that news came of the recovery of more dead birds a short distance from Lohia Nagar. Fifty birds were found dead near a culvert at Nevadhi Sandaha village under the Chaubeypur police station, a kilometre from the Sarnath railway station. Villagers told officials that the birds had been lying there since Saturday. Since the birds were suspected to have been dead for more than 48 hours, they couldn't be used for collecting samples and the officials are in the process of burying them. "The dead birds from Lohia Nagar will be sent to the High Security Diseases Control Lab in Bhopal, while serum and blood samples taken from the living birds at the poultry will be sent to the lab in Pune. Only after the samples are tested at Pune and Bhopal can anything be said about possibility of bird flu,' the CVO said. While he added that the birds may have died due to overcrowding during transport or lack of water at a time when temperatures are on the rise, Sings did not rule out chances of bird flu. Additional City Magistrate Devi Das, who accompanied the team, has directed inspection of all the 14 poultry farms in a 5-km radius around Sarnath. Incidentally, on January 26, a consignment of 5,000 birds had arrived at Varanasi railway station on the Vibhuti Express from the bird flu-infected district of Birbhum in West Bengal. The consignment was brought by a local poultry owner, Dipu Sonkar, and immediately sent to poultries in Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Buxar in Bihar. The birds were later culled in Bihar and Shahjahanpur. "Though there are remote chances of bird flu at a time when summer is setting in, we are not taking any chances,' said the CVO.

The state Health Department was sent into a tizzy after a girl with suspected symptoms of bird flu was admitted at the Civil Hospital here on Thursday. "One Anjalina Paslain (21) has been admitted with fever and rashes and has been kept in the isolation ward,' state director of health services, Dr K H Lakiang said, adding that some tests have been done for "prevention' and "diagnosis. He, while not ruling out the possibility of bird flu, said: "Nothing can be said as of now. The blood and stool samples of the victim have been collected, and will be sent for test for the avian flu to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi on Friday.' District Surveillance Officer (Integrated Diseases Surveillance Cell) Dr M Basaiawmoit and other senior health officials also did not rule out the possibility of the deadly disease, but insisted on waiting till the tests results are obtained. Requesting anonymity, the two specialist doctors attending the victim said: "Certain respiratory problems also have similar symptoms. We have to wait for the test results to come. It will take three to four days.' The victim, who hails from Sipung in Jaintia Hills district, was first admitted at the local health centre, after which she was brought to a private hospital in Shillong, which further referred her to the civil hospital here. Significantly, there were mass deaths of birds in Sipung last week, but blood tests of the dead poultry had tested negative for H5N1 virus. State Veterinary Director Dr D Khonglah, however, ruled out any threat of the deadly virus saying, "The death of the poultry at Sipung was due to Ranikhet disease. We have conducted tests which confirmed that the poultry died due to Ranikhet as the poultry owners skipped regular vaccinations.' The Superintendent of the Civil Hospital could not be contacted despite several attempts. Meghalaya was the first state in the country to sound an alert after the outbreak of bird flu in neighbouring Bangladesh this year.

A man from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China has died of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The ministry said on its website that a 41-year-old man surnamed Liang fell sick on Feb 12 and was hospitalized two days later.