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Authorities will begin culling 150,000 poultry within 5 km of the, now confirmed, outbreak. While a number of people are receiving Tamiflu, so far this appears precautionary.
Govt confirms bird flu outbreak in Manipur
26 Jul, 2007 l 0049 hrs
NEW DELHI: The deadly bird flu virus H5N1 is back in India. The outbreak has been reported from Chingmeirong village of Eastern Imphal district in Manipur, two kms from capital Imphal, where 132 chickens out of 144 died over a period of six days starting July 7.
Pending test results, the remaining birds in the infected farm were culled and the unit was fully disinfected, Union government said. State government has started control and containment operations in rest of the area. Over 1.5 lakh birds and backyard poultry, from 120 small units within a five-km radius of the infected farm, will be culled in the next 10 days.
Over 20 people, who were handling the infected poultry before the birds died, have been quarantined and put under prophylactic cover. They, and six veterinary workers, have been administered Tamiflu, the most popular drug for treating bird flu. They have, however, not shown any respiratory distress so far.
132 chickens died within six days, when unusual mortality was reported on July 7, for the first time. By July 12, the state government informed the Union animal husbandry department. Samples were then picked up and sent for testing to Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory where they tested positive for bird flu. The health ministry has set up 40 medical teams of 34 members each in the state. From Friday, they will start house-to-house surveillance of people living within a three-km radius of the infected farm. Then, the radius will be increased to 10 km.
The Manipur government, which has sounded an alert in the state, has created a special 10-bed ward at JN Hospital in Imphal for patients with symptoms similar to avian influenza.
The ministry hopes to cover 80,000 households with a population of 4.5 lakh people. The team will check if anybody is showing symptoms like cough and cold. Two portable ventilators are being sent to Manipur as a precautionary measure.
India has been free of bird flu since August 2006 after two major outbreaks among chicken were recorded from Maharashtra and Gujarat in early 2006.
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