The health department has sounded an alert of possible bird flu in Birbhum district of West Bengal with reports of death of thousands of chickens. Reports of death of chickens are also coming from some parts of the West Bengal.
The Animal Husbandry Department has been constantly monitoring the cases and health officials are taking note of the health condition of the people in the affected villages. Though there is no confirmation of the bird flu from the veterinary department but the administration doesn’t want to leave any chance.
Meanwhile, as per the initial reports of Animal Husbandry Department of Bhopal the cases are though indicating towards bird influenza but no confirmation yet for the deadly H5N1 virus. There are several rounds of testing needs to be done before the final report.
The state authority has initiated culling process in villages where the numbers of infected birds are increasing rapidly. The locals are directed not to buy or sell chickens and report if they experience any kind of fever or queasiness.
Earlier in the year 2006, a massive level of bird flu cases were reported in states like Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and some parts of Gujarat which forced the authority and locals to slay thousands of chickens. However, no human loss was reported in that period but this time especially with the reports of one person’s death due to bird flu in China and increasing outbreak in Indonesia has sounded a serious alert tone.
Meanwhile, the central government taking note of the earnestness of the situation has sent a team from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) to collect detailed report and suggest appropriate steps.
WHO Reports
As per the reports of the World Health Organisation (WHO) the poultry farms of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Thailand are timely get affected with avian influenza. However, only Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar are reported to be hit with human cases in recent times.
In September 2006, there was one case of human death reported in Thailand.
Recent case
Indonesian Health Ministry has confirmed a death of 32-year old woman due to bird flu. With this the total number of death due to avian influenza has touched the mark of 95 in Indonesia only. After a couple of laboratory tests the death was confirmed owing to H5N1 bird flu virus, the deadly one.
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Comments:
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
January 14, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
January 14, 2008 at 12:00 AMH5N1 avian flu: Spread by drinking water
There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0829.htm. See also the WHO webside: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emerging/h5n1background.pdf and http://www.umwelt-medizin-gesellschaft.de/ abstract in English ?Influenza: Initial introduction of influenza viruses to the population via abiotic water supply versus biotic human viral respirated droplet shedding? and http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907700294/abstract?iseop=true ?Transmission of influenza A in human beings?.
Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of small water supplies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. In hot climates and the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. The virulence of the influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply the water temperature for infection may be higher (at 24?C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 2 days) as in temperate climates (for ?older? water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses: at 7?C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 14 days).
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum.
The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
In temperate climates strong seasonal waterborne infections like the norovirus, rotavirus, salmonella, campylobacter and - differing from the usual dogma - influenza are mainly triggered by drinking water, dependent on the water's temperature (in Germany it is at a minimum in February and March and at a maximum in August). There is no evidence that influenza primarily is transmitted by saliva droplets. In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can't be explained by the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from human to human at temperatures of 37.5?C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. There is no other appropriate abiotic vehicle. In Germany about 98 percent of inhabitants have a central public water supply with older and better protected water. Therefore, in Germany cold water is decisive to the virulence of viruses.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann - Free Science Journalist - soddemann-aachen@t-online.de - http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html - Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf
Transmission of avian flu by drinking water
Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of decentral water supplies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. In hot climates/tropics the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. Virulence of Influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher (24?C: virulence of influenza viruses 2 days) as in temperate climates with older water from central water supplies (7?C: virulence of influenza viruses 14 days).
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html
Epidemiological Analysis:
http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf