# 1765
One of the harsh realities about the H5N1 virus is that once it gets established in an area, it is exceedingly difficult to get rid of.
Since no new outbreaks had been reported in West Bengal in more than a month, local officials assumed they had eradicated the virus. Just as Vietnam and Indonesia have discovered, it is a task easier said than done.
Bird flu resurfaces in West Bengal
9 Mar 2008, 0308 hrs IST,
NEW DELHI: A fresh outbreak of bird-flu has occurred in West Bengal. Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory confirmed on Friday night that samples sent from Raghunathganj and Jiaganj from Murshidabad district are positive with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus.
Animal Husbandry secretary Pradeep Kumar confirmed to TOI, "We have a fresh outbreak. Two samples from Raghunathganj and Jiaganj tested positive. Samples were sent on March 6 to HSADL Bhopal. We notified the West Bengal government on Saturday."
He added, "Since the earlier outbreak in West Bengal had occurred in backyard poultry, culling teams had reported that villagers were hiding birds in infected districts from culling teams. The virus may have survived because of this. Fresh culling operations will start from Sunday."
Thirteen of the 19 districts of West Bengal were infected by the virus. The outbreak in West Bengal was confirmed on January 15. However, the state hadn't reported a fresh outbreak since February 2, making both the Centre and the state almost certain that the outbreak, which WHO had labelled as India's worst, may have finally been contained.
Incidentally, Murshidabad was the epicentre of the original outbreak. "Containment and culling operations will now have to be started afresh in 3-5 km radius around the newly-affected areas. One of the affected areas is a new village in a block which had earlier reported an outbreak," a highly-placed source told TOI.
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