 |
||
|
Town in western India sealed off |
||
|
MUMBAI, Thurs. --- Indian authorities today sealed off a western Indian town at the centre of the country’s first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, allowing no one in or out. Roads to Navapur were closed and trains crossing the area were not being permitted to stop at stations inside the town, said P.G.Chowdhury of the local police. The cordon covered a 3km radius from the town, and Chowdhury said senior officials in the state had ordered it set up as a precaution a day after workers finished slaughtering 700,000 chickens to stop the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. He said that while some people were still moving through the area on foot, by dusk, “no one will be allowed to come in. Those who are inside will stay in, the ones outside will stay out”. He could not say how long the cordon would be in place. Maharashtra’s health director, T.P.Doke, said: “We want to minimize contact between the local people and outsiders. We are telling road travelers to use masks and get on with their journeys without stopping. Trains are not stopping here… It’s a kind of sealing”. Seven of 12 people quarantined with suspected bird flu in Navapur have tested negative but more tests were being conducted to ensure the rest were also free from the deadly virus. In all, 95 people had so far been tested, but 94 proved negative for the H5N1 strain. “The last is not positive for 5N1. We are testing it further as it does not match any classical profile of the H5N1 strain”, India’s Health Secretary P.K. Hota said. The Indian action came as scientists in Australia said birds from neighboring Indonesia had most likely brought the disease to the country’s north and France confirmed a second wild duck on its territory was found to have the H5N1 strain of bird flu. |
Birds from Indonesia have most likely brought avian flu to Australia’s northern shores, but it is yet to be detected, two of the nation’s top scientists said. “There is no magic curtain between Indonesia and Australia, and given the expanse of our land it would not be surprising if it was here”, said Professor Mark von Itzstein from Griffith University in the state of Queensland. “In my view it is highly likely”, said von Itzstein, who led the Australian team that developed the flu drug Relenza. In Indonesia, 19 people have died from avian flu. The Indonesian health ministry said yesterday tests showed a 27-year-old woman in Jakarta had died of bird flu. The WHO is yet to confirm the death is due to avian flu. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service said testing of wild birds in northern Australia had not detected avian flu. --- Agencies.
Elsewhere There is growing alarm in Europe over the rapid spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus. France last week became the sixth EU country to be hit. The virus was discovered in a second wild duck found dead in the Ain region of southeast France, the Ministry of Agriculture announced yesterday. It said in a statement that the duck was found in the village of Bouvent on Sunday, the day after the discovery of the first wild duck carrying the strain. The virus has been found in domestic birds for the first time in Germany. The virus was found in a small flock of domestic birds in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pemerania, a Government spokeswoman said yesterday. |
The Austrian cases are especially alarming to the EU’s poultry industry, so far untouched by the epidemic, and to health officials worried about human infection. --- AP. IN HONG KONG EARLY results of tests being carried out on the carcass of a wild bird found in Hong Kong indicate that it was infected with H5 avian influenza, the Government said yesterday. A house crow, found dead in Kowloon on Monday, was an exotic invasive species common in Singapore which had only recently appeared in Hong Kong, a spokesman for the agriculture department said. Further tests were being conducted, he said. Ten birds have already tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Hong Kong. Tests on another three birds that were infected with the H5 strain are continuing. --- AFP. IN AFRICA EXPERTS from West Africa and beyond got together in Senegal yesterday in a search for ways to monitor and fight bird flu, which threatens to wreck havoc in the region. Africa is seen to be particularly vulnerable to the virus because of poor health infrastructure and weakened immune systems in much of the population, due to malnourishment and the AIDS pandemic. The two-day conference called by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade got under way as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain could cause a regional disaster despite efforts to control it. Bird flu broke out in Nigeria, the region’s most populous country, two weeks ago and has spread to seven of the vast nation’s 36 states. --- AFP.
|
|
|
||
