here is the offical Indian BF site-
not very good but it is something
http://www.mohfw.nic.in/avianwb.htm

As of now, there are no human H5 cases in this latest outbreak in India.



I find that hard to believe , due to the severity and size of this outbreak. Time will tell.
    
   

Indian gov't denies bird flu case in humans Mathaba.Net 09:28

India's Avian Flu Outbreak Is `Serious,' WHO Says (Update1)

By Jay Shankar

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- An outbreak of avian flu in India's West Bengal state is ``serious'' and the virus has spread rapidly to many districts, the World Health Organization's representative said.

The outbreak is the 10th in India since the H5N1 avian influenza virus was first reported to have killed poultry there in February 2006. No human cases have been recorded in India.

India has the capacity to handle the situation as the ``fundamentals of planning are sound,'' S.J. Habayeb, the organization's representative in the South Asian nation, said in an interview conducted over e-mail.

The disease has spread to more districts in West Bengal, taking the total number to nine, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said in New Delhi today. ``We are trying to control the situation.''

The government has culled 242,000 chickens since the disease was reported among poultry Jan. 15 in the eastern state, the agriculture ministry has said.

As many as 113,796 chickens have died from the virus, the ministry said in a release. Samples from six districts have tested negative. About 258 teams have been deployed for culling and surveillance operations in West Bengal, the ministry added.

`Backyard Culling'

``The main problem we are facing is culling in the backyards,'' Anisur Rahman, West Bengal's animal resources minister, said in a telephone interview from the state capital of Kolkata, also known as Calcutta. ``In other places, where the disease was reported, the farmers carried their poultry to a central farm in a village. Here, volunteers have to go to each house and convince farmers to do the culling.''

The teams, working in the villages, have gone up from 400 to 650 today, Rahman said.

``Culling is going on at a rapid pace,'' he said. ``At the same time, we are faced with a situation where poultry is being tested positive from new areas which are far-flung.''

The virus is known to have infected 351 people in 14 countries since late 2003, killing 219 of them, the Geneva-based World Health Organization said on its Web site two days ago. Indonesia has the highest number of fatalities, with 97 deaths.

Millions could die if the H5N1 virus develops the characteristics of seasonal flu and begins spreading easily between humans through coughing and sneezing.

Early signs of the disease range from fever and coughing to diarrhea and vomiting, researchers said in a Jan. 17 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 23, 2008 05:08 EST

The population of India is 1,130,000,000. Many of which live in very depressed conditions.

The population of the U.S. is 301,000,000.

Can a realistic response to Bird Flu be launched in India?

The spread of an unknown disease has been reported in Nawayath village in Uppani of Honnavar taluka which left three children dead and many others hospitalized. According to the sources, the disease is being spread in the area from past four days. The initial symptoms of the disease include fever, diarrhoea and vomiting, which gradually leads to death after two to three days of infection. The deceased have been identified as Sajida Afreen Ibrahim (11), Khalid Basheer Ahmed (7), Zaheer Ahmed Faquih(14), the students of class V, III and IX respectively. Others who have been affected include six people who have been admitted to different hospitals. Aqueel Khaja(16),a class X student is admitted in Shridevi Hospital Honnavar, Parveen Ahmed Mukhtasar (14),class IX student, admitted in Sharada Nursing Home Karki, while two others have been taken to Mangalore hospital, whose names are unknown.

The deceased Sajida's mother, Akhtar Banu Ibrahim (40) and her brother is also infected with the disease and are admitted in Shridevi Hospital, Honnavar. The spread of this disease have greatly threatened the public of the area. The doctors are not yet successful in identifying the cause of the disease. After receiving the information, the Health Officer from Karwar and other specialized doctors from Mangalore and Bangalore have been ordered to come to Honnavar for help. Today, the concerned matter was under discussion in the meeting which was held here in Majlis Islah-O-Tanzeem, a social organization in Bhatkal, and it has been approved to send a team of helpers to the affected area. )

http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?cid=15071&cat=dis&lang=eng

http://www.sahilonline.org/english/coastalnews.asp?nid=1289&sid=1021188664

It still sounds bad though. I can't imagine living in a part of the world where disease runs riot like that. Fingers crossed I never do, but I think all of us on the forum know how that might go if history continue to repeat itself.

India^{ref1, ref2} : poultry population was 489 million in 2003, according to the latest livestock census released in January 2005, a USD 13.6 billion poultry industry. The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh had the highest number of poultry at 102.3 million.

The poultry population increased 45% from 1997. Nandurbar district had 3.1 million poultry^ref. The country produced 45.2 billion eggs in the year to March 2005, placing it among the top-5 egg-producing nations in the world. The per-capita availability of eggs has gone up to 41 in the billion plus nation from 25 in 1990-91, when India opened up its socialistic economy to foreign competition. Safety measures instituted by the government to stop the outbreak of bird flu. These measures were put in place in January 2004, soon after the virus resurfaced in Asia: import of poultry and poultry-related products has been completely banned from infected countries; check posts and quarantine stations on borders with neighbouring countries have been set up; customs has been directed not to clear poultry or poultry products from foreign countries without getting it cleared from the quarantine department^ref.

• no single report of an avian flu outbreak from India has been documented since 2001.

            samples drawn in 2002 from 3 poultry farm workers in Kattangalathur, Tamil Nadu state, southern India, while routinely monitoring the human population for influenza antibodies tested positive for anti-H₅N₁ antibodies at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) referral laboratory at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine in Chennai. The samples were drawn. The 3 poultry workers have not had bird flu and are doing well. Results were then confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta late in 2004. Virus isolation and sequencing has not been attempted in India, as there is a lack of such a secure bio-safety facility. Migratory birds that arrive on Tamil Nadu's coast in Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, north of Chennai, every year could be a source for the virus strain. Poultry is a major state industry for the area, and migratory birds arrive every year on Tamil Nadu's coast in Vedanthangal, north of Chennai. Therefore, it is rather puzzling that 3 people were infected with the HPAI H₅N₁

• while working in the poultry farm(s), but that no sick or dead birds were ever discovered or reported by the local or national health authorities, such as ICMR.
  
• > 10,000 poultry died in nearly 20 villages of northeastern Assam's Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh since Jan 31 to Feb 8 2004. Neither Burma nor Tibet, the Chinese province bordering India, have so far been reported as infected. On Feb 26 2004, sudden death of pigeons observed in Kamakhya Hindu temple in Guwahati, state of Assam (?)
• a general alert has been sounded with the death toll of migratory birds in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary on the banks of the Yamuna, registering yet another casualty on Sun Feb 5 2006, taking the total number of dead birds up to 48. Birds of 8 species comprising 40 shovellers, 2 common teals, a lesser black-backed gull, a brown-headed gull, a little egret, a medium cormorant, a little cormorant, and coot were recovered from the area. Some of the recovered bodies were already putrefied and some were fresh, indicating that death would have occurred at least 2 days before. While the death of the migratory birds in Okhla Bird Sancutary has raised concern about the plight of these annual winged visitors to India, death due to bird flu has been ruled out after a post-mortem. Indications are that the deaths could well have been caused by high levels of toxins in the Yamuna. The post-mortem findings revealed rigor mortis, blotches of haemorrhagic spots on the heart and kidneys and congestion in the lungs. Interestingly, in the gizzard of one of the dissected birds, 3 fish were found undigested. This indicates that the birds had fed recently before dying. 3 dead shovellers were handed over to the Forest Department to be sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly, and High Security Disease Investigation Laboratory, Bhopal, for confirmatory tests for toxicity and bird flu. One dead bird has been sent to Bhopal and 2 to Bareilly.  The rest of the birds and fish were incinerated on the site in the presence of the Forest Department officials
• a survey carried out on some 1,296 birds showed that H₉ has been detected in Gujarat, with as many as 37 cases testing positive in an extensive survey carried out in zoos, bird sanctuaries, wetlands and poultry farms across the state^ref.
• Maharashtra state^ref : about 50,000 birds died since 27 Jan 2006 at 52 farms in Navapur^{ref1, ref2, ref3}, Nandurbar district, located just 30 km across the inter-state border with Gujarat in Surat district, 400 km (250 miles) north of the Maharashtra state capital, Mumbai (Bombay). On 14 Feb 2006, the outbreak in Maharashtra was reported as a diagnosed case of Newcastle disease; fortunately, samples were forwarded to the government laboratory in central Bhopal town, which confirmed H₅N₁ in 3 out of 8 birds on Feb 18, 2006^{ref1, ref2, ref3}. The samples will be sent to Australia for further verification^ref. Maharashtra state (population over 100 million, area 118,530 sq mi = 306,993 sq km) is situated in West India, on the Arabian Sea^ref. Maharashtra, India's most industrialised state, is the country's third largest producer of eggs. The city of Mumbai [formerly Bombay] is the capital. Around 500,000 birds will be killed in a 1.5-mile radius around the poultry farms^ref. About 300,000 birds have been culled so far^ref. The government will compensate farmers in Maharashtra for the culled chickens by paying 10 rupees for each chick, 30 rupees for a broiler and 40 rupees (90 cents) for a chicken^ref. A 3 km (2-mile) exclusion zone has been established around the infected farm, and another 1 million chickens in farms up to 10 km (6 miles) away will be vaccinated : on Feb 18 authorities began vaccinating 300,000 birds. The Ministry has already dispatched 9,000 doses of Tamiflu and 2,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to Maharashtra and about 2,000 doses of the drug and 1,000 PPEs have been sent to Gujarat^ref. > 200 veterinary specialists in Maharashtra have been sent to help destroy 700,000 birds at 48 farms (200,000 on Feb 19)^ref and blood samples of 8 people with flu-like symptoms have been sent for testing at a lab in Pune. 4 other people, including 3 children, are also under close observation^ref. There are nearly 1.2 - 1.4 million laying birds in 60-odd poultry sheds around Navapur. These sheds supply eggs to Nashik, Jalgaon, Bhusawal, Surat (Gujarat), Indore (MP), Mumbai and Hyderabad. On Feb 19 a report from a top administrator of India's Surat district in the western Gujarat state and the state's health minister suggested a 28-year-old male poultry farm owner from Nandurbar had fell sick and was admitted to hospital on Feb 8 and died with suspected bird flu in Surat on Feb 18, but the health ministry statement did not confirm this^ref. The government said the man had no history of handling poultry and his death was on account of ``acute respiratory distress'' due to a bacterial infection^ref. About 95 people are being tested for possible human infection as a precaution : 51 clinical samples from people who had been in contact with poultry or had symptoms of upper respiratory infection had been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Maharashtra's Pune city and 44 samples to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi^ref. 12 patients with fever and respiratory illness in Navapur sub-district have been hospitalized for observation as a precautionary measure : 2 patients with mild URTI and normal chest X-rays were positive at preliminary tests, were isolated and treated with oseltamivir^ref. 11 of the 12 had tested negative but the 12th was undergoing further tests^ref. About 500 people have walked into makeshift medical camps in Navapur (town) to get checked for cough and cold since Feb 21 : authorities had completed a door-to-door search in Navapur where 30,000 people had been examined. As of 22 Feb 2006, 208 892 birds have been culled in Maharashtra^ref. 12 people quarantined at the Navapur sub-divisional hospital in Maharashtra were hospitalised after they displayed flu-like symptoms : the patients have been isolated and treated with oseltamivir. Clinically, they looked all right and none of them have shown any signs of ‘acute distress’ yet^ref. On Tue Mar 14, 2006, samples of dead birds sent last month to a laboratory in Bhopal from 4 tehsils of Raver, Darangaon, Yaval and Chopada (spread over 1,100 square km (425 square miles)) in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra (200 km (125 miles) from Navapur) tested positive for H₅N₁^{ref1, ref2} : a total of 45,184 birds have been culled here. With the culling of 91, 000 birds in the avian influenza affected talukas over four days, the culling operation in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra was declared "practically over" on 19 Mar^ref. The deaths of 130 birds out of 30,000 purchased from Mumbai by a trader for selling during Holi in Maval taluka of Pune district on March 14, which triggered panic in the region, was not due to bird flu, but to shocks during travel : a 5% mortality rate is normal in transportation of broilers as they are weak in comparison to backyard poultry and cannot withstand the shock^ref.
• a 11-year-old boy with high fever (but no respiratory symptoms^ref) and a history of exposure to dead birds was given oseltamivir on Sat 18 Mar : the boy's fever, which developed on Fri 17 Mar, did not come down with paracetamol and his temperature shot up to 103°C on Sat night^ref
• a doctor (Dr DA Wankhede) who suffered from diabetes with fever and respiratory problems walked into a local hospital and asked to be put under observation. The doctor is not from the affected region and neither was he exposed to dead birds, but we didn't want to take a chance. The doctor complained of fever after an egg broke in his hands^ref
• a 40-year-old woman (Sarlo Subhash More / Mrs Sarla Subhash Moray^ref), a local poultry owner from Takiri Khurd / Takri Khu-rd village was hospitalised on Sun 19 Mar and kept in isolation after health officials carrying out door-to-door surveillance found her with fever and respiratory problems. Investigations revealed that she had used bare hands to bury a large number of chickens who died 8 days ago. She was treated with oseltamivir^ref. She had recently had a lung operation too^ref
• a 5-year-old girl (Tina Deepak Nanavede) from Kochur village was also diagnosed with classic symptoms. Her grandparents told health officials that 6 chickens had died in their house a week ago and Tina had buried them. She was treated with oseltamivir^ref
All 4 tested negative on Mar 21^ref.
Health officials were monitoring 65,000 people spread over 17 villages. Of them, some 150 people had fever, but authorities said the figure was normal^ref. On Tue 28 Mar 2006, the Center told state and Jalgaon district officials that the virus had been detected in 6 new pockets of Jalgaon district. The new areas Erandol, Uttran, Bhadgaon, Parola, Varad and Paladhi are located close to the 4 villages of Jalgaon district where the bird flu virus was earlier detected. For the state government, the news was not unexpected, as it had made all arrangements for a culling operation about 10 days back over such fears.
On Apr 5, 2006, H₅ was confirmed in 14 new villages in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, near the site of 2 earlier outbreaks^ref. Of the 3,509 samples from Madhya Pradesh tested at the Animal Disease Laboratory, only one from Ichhapur village in Burhanpur district has tested positive. On Apr 8, nearly 1,000 birds in 5 villages - Biroda, Bholawa, Garhtal, Pipalphata and Mukhawara - where the birds are being culled are within a radius of 10 km from Pipari village in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district where some poultry samples had tested positive^ref.
• a 30-years old poultry farmer in India's bird-flu hit western region approached authorities on Apr 7 and told them some 600 chicken on his farm had died last week : he was hospitalised on Sat Apr 8 with flu-like symptoms at a government hospital in Ahmedabad^ref
• an Akola-based veterinary surgeon who had supervised culling operations in the affected area of Nandurbar and Jalgaon in Maharashtra fell ill with fever and died : his death was not due to avian influenza infection but rather to jaundice^{ref1, ref2}
• Gujarat state : government planned to go in for immediate vaccination of birds in the border town of Ucchal of Surat district, with the help of a Central team^ref. 3 patients were hospitalized for observation in the Vaira sub-district^ref. As of 22 Feb 2006, 73,157 birds have been culled in Uchchhal Taluka, Surat District. 6 chicken samples taken from 2 different poultry farms on February 13 tested positive for bird flu on Feb 25, including some chickens from the National Poultry Farm in Utchal taluka (Uchchhal Taluka). It was confirmed by the Union government on 2 samples out of 13 sent from the region^ref
• Uttar Pradesh state : poultry deaths were reported Sun Feb 19 from a farm in Bakepur, Etawah district (at least 1,400 chickens died in last 3 days), 230 km southwest of the state capital Lucknow^ref, but on Feb 20 the Joint Secretary, Animal Husbandry Department, Upma Choudhary, told these deaths were due to unhygienic conditions and not due to H₅N₁ virus^ref. > 60% of the state's 2.5 million poultry workers have lost their jobs^ref
• Madhya Pradesh state^ref: avian flu was detected in poultry samples of Ichhapur town in the Burhanpur district on Mar 28, 2006. In intensifying steps to curtail bird flu, over 6,600 chickens were culled in 23 villages. The culled birds were disposed of in 18-10 feet deep pits dug across 5 quarantined zones within 10 km radius of Ichhapur. The government has increased the compensation money to poultry farmers to Rs 60 for every broiler chicken, Rs 40 for layer and Rs 20 for each chick. The administration had recorded 716 birds in 6 villages falling under the alert zone (3 km radius of site of infection) and 5,921 chickens in 17 villages of the surveillance zone (10 km radius of Ichhapur). Around 112 veterinary department staff, including 23 rapid response teams comprising cullers, doctors and handlers, were engaged in the entire operations and were equipped with adequate preventive gear : the staff was administered oseltamivir to prevent spread of infection among them. The teams will cull, clean and mop, following which a drive to disinfect the area and 2,300 houses will be carried out for around 8 days : per Union Health Ministry instructions, the staff involved in the operation will be kept under observation in Ichhapur for 7 days. Vaccinations will not be carried out in the area as birds in both alert and surveillance zones were culled^ref
• Karnataka state^ref :
• Telsang village^ref, located in the Belgaum District and around 30 km east of Athani : 25 people suffering from fever were reported to have symptoms of bird flu and were rushed to the Primary Health Centre on Thur 20 Apr 2006. 3 more cases of suspected bird flu were reported on Apr 24, 2006^ref

A study of the gene sequences (HA1 and HA2) of the 2 H₅N₁ strains (divergent by 3.5%) isolated from the Navapur and Jalgaon outbreaks, concluded that the viruses originated independentely from Qinghai (central China) and Jiangxi (south China), respectively. Jalgaon was the first to be hit and not Navapur -- as widely believed. Though the outbreak at Jalgaon was reported 12 days after Navapur (18 Feb 2006), its virus had evolved earlier. Since the Jalgaon outbreak was in backyard poultry (involving scattered deaths), it was reported later than the Navapur outbreak in which a large number of birds in organised poultry farms died. That was also the reason why it took more time in Jalgaon to control the disease, as it had spread far and wide. Probably the Navapur virus was responsible for the outbreak in Uchhal in Gujarat, and the Jalgaon virus for the Burhanpur outbreak in Madhya Pradesh^ref.
The government has offered farmers compensation of 90 cents per bird, a price farmers say is inadequate. Some 200,000 chickens and domestic birds have been culled in India since 19 to 25 Feb 2006. Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs, which has been granted a licence for production of oseltamivir, had already made available 5 lakh capsules and would deliver an additional 2 lakh capsules. Mumbai-based Cipla said it would start marketing its generic version of Tamiflu in a week^ref. The World Health Organization has supplied about 200 bottles of Tamiflu in syrup form^ref. Of the 2,100 species of birds found in India at any given time, 350 are migratory. Every year, millions of migratory birds visit thousands of lakes and water bodies in the country. Studies have proved that migratory birds are found in each of the 593 districts in the country. A small district like Bidar attracts 45 species of migratory birds. If migratory birds had brought the disease, each district should have had the infection by now, not just Nandurbar in Maharashtra. Secondly, migratory birds come in September and leave by mid March. If these birds have been carrying the H₅N₁ virus all along, why did they not infect the local birds in September itself^ref. Maharashtra is likely to witness several such outbreaks in the coming weeks because thousands of birds that were infected during the first outbreak in Nandurbar had been illegally shifted to other places in the state instead of being culled, the official said on condition of anonymity. The shifting took place with the patronage of some politicians : such shifting will have surely created fresh hot spots of infection in other places in the state that can flare up anytime. According to the official, while 9 lakh birds were officially claimed to have been culled, the cullers could actually account for only 2.9 lakh birds. It is obvious that nearly 6 lakh birds, many of them possibly infected, had been taken away to other places^ref. In India, 7 poultry farmers committed suicide because the H₅N₁ virus destroyed their livelihood, according to an Agence France Presse (AFP) report that cited information from a farmers' organization. The H₅N₁ infections and subsequent culling that have swept India have cost the industry USD 1.8 billion in 6 weeks, the National Egg Coordination Committee said on 12 Apr 2006. The 7 suicides are not an unheard-of response to the stresses of farming in India. The AFP story noted that nearly 9000 people in 4 Indian states are
thought to have killed themselves in connection with rising costs, debt, and repeated crop failures in the past 5 years.
5 new outbreaks involving large numbers of birds are reported. There were 628,363 birds involved with farms ranging from approximately 11,000 to 251,
000. 4 of the outbreaks were at Jalgaon district, Maharashtra state; the other outbreak was in Burhanpur district, Madhya Pradesh state. The last
case was reported on 18 Apr 2006^ref.

Dead chicken found in a pool
Thursday January 24 2008 15:01 IST
Express News Service

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PERIYAKULAM: About 2,000 dead broilers were found floating in a highly decomposed state in a pool at Vellakaradu near Devadanapatti in Theni district causing panic and the villagers fear that the birds might have died due to avian flu.

The Vellakaradu pool is located near Kamatchi Amman temple along Devadanapatti - Pullakkapatti Road.

The water in the pool is stagnant and dirty. Dead fowls were found floating in the pool and the whole area was reeking with the stench of rotten flesh.

Many people in the area do not know how the birds landed in the pool. But they suspect that the fowls may have died of bird flu.

They also feel that the poultry farm owners in the area may have disposed the birds to avoid being questioned by authorities.

The people have requested the authorities to remove these birds from the pool and clean it or refill the water.

In the meanwhile, agricultural workers are not reporting for work fearing that they may become victims of avian flu.

Jan 24, 7:21 AM EST


Calcutta under bird flu threat as virus flares in Asia

By MANIK BANERJEE
Associated Press Writer


AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit

CALCUTTA, India (AP) -- Indian authorities inspected poultry markets Thursday in an attempt to prevent the country's worst outbreak of bird flu from spreading to crowded Calcutta, as Thailand announced a new outbreak, prompting the United Nations to warn of the global threat posed by the virus.

The danger of the virulent H5N1 strain of the disease was illustrated in Indonesia, where a man from the outskirts of Jakarta died of bird flu Thursday, bringing the country's death toll to 98. On Wednesday, Vietnam announced its first death this year, taking its toll to 48 since the virus began devastating Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Bird flu has killed at least 219 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Although it remains hard for humans to catch, experts fear it will mutate into a new form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

Calcutta health officials searched poultry markets Thursday, looking for signs of infected birds after the virus was discovered just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the city of 14 million people.

"We are keeping a strict vigil," said D.D. Chattopadhyay, the city's chief medical officer. No human cases have been reported in India so far.

About 700,000 birds have been slaughtered since the disease was discovered last week in eastern India's West Bengal state and health workers plan to kill another 1.4 million, said state Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman.

"We are doing our best to stop the virus from spreading to Calcutta and other districts, " Rahman said, adding that some 750 teams were involved in the slaughter.

But concerns have been heightened by Indian authorities' failure so far to halt the spread of the disease, amid accusations of bureaucratic bungling and problems securing cooperation from villagers, who have hidden chickens or smuggled them to other areas, fearing financial loss.

"Culling is slow and ham-handed," said West Bengal Poultry Welfare Association President Sheikh Nazrul Islam, who said losses to the poultry industry totaled 1 billion rupees (US$25 million; €17 million) in the last week.

While India has successfully contained two previous outbreaks, they were both in large poultry farms. This outbreak has largely struck chickens kept by peasants in their small yards, and many villagers were unaware of the danger.

India's neighbors, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh, all announced they were halting imports of poultry products from India.

Also Thursday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization issued a statement in Rome warning that despite international efforts bird flu remains a global threat.

"The H5N1 avian influenza crisis is far from over and remains particularly worrying in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Egypt, where the virus has become deeply entrenched despite major control efforts," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said in the statement.

"The virus has not become more contagious to humans but has managed to persist in parts of Asia, Africa and probably Europe. It could still trigger a human influenza pandemic," he said.

Officials in Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the disease, have not determined how the 30-year-old man who died Thursday became infected with the H5N1 virus, said Sunan Raja, an official at the Health Ministry's Bird Flu Center.

Officials in a number of Asian countries have urged increased monitoring of the disease, which tends to flare during the colder months. Vietnam and China have stressed the need for heightened vigilance before the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, when large numbers of people and poultry are on the move.

Thailand on Thursday announced its first bird flu outbreak in 10 months, at a farm in the country's north. Livestock officials in Turkey also have been battling the disease this week.

---

Associated Press writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.

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Conditions under which a rapid containment operation would not be initiated
A decision to initiate a rapid pandemic containment operation might be deferred for several reasons, including the following:

1. a novel influenza A virus could not be confirmed;
2. it was not operationally feasible, including for security reasons, to rapidly
implement pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions at a level
considered minimally acceptable;
3. national authorities decide against supporting a containment operation;
4. evidence suggests that the novel influenza virus has already spread too far to make containment realistically feasible.

India worst bird flu outbreak spreads