India battling bird flu again

Apr 7 2008

Health authorities in India have confirmed a fresh outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Tripura, in the northeast near Bangladesh.

Veterinary official say preparations are in hand for the culling of flocks of chickens and ducks in the area following preliminary reports that more than 3,000 birds had died.

Tripura lies on the border of Bangladesh and local Veterinary officials suspect the virus may have spread from Bangladesh.

Authorities in Bangladesh have already culled millions of birds in efforts to control the spread of the deadly virus but the battle to contain the virus continues.

Authorities in West Bengal say the deadly virus had reappeared again this time in Nadia district, which also borders Bangladesh.

By culling millions of birds in 14 of its 19 districts, West Bengal initially thought it had contained the virus but the virus continues to resurface here and there and authorities are now having to face culling even more birds.

Health workers in both states are on alert for flu-like symptoms in humans even though India has to date had no reported human infections since it's first outbreak of bird flu in in Maharashtra in 2006.

Authorities have already culled more than 90,000 birds in an effort to control the spread of the virus.

As the H5N1 strain of the virus spreads experts say the worry is that the virus will at some stage mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and trigger a pandemic.

The continuing spread of the H5N1 virus threatens livelihoods as well as lives and many poor people have been badly affected.

The World Health Organization considers the outbreak in West Bengal the January as India worst outbreak.