India: 12 tested positive

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian authorities virtually cut off traffic through a western town on Thursday as 11 out of 12 people quarantined following a bird flu outbreak in chickens tested negative for the virus, officials said.

They said the last sample had to undergo further tests to conclusively decide its status and the result of further screening would be announced on Saturday.

Besides the dozen, two more people were quarantined on Thursday including a veterinary worker involved in culling of chickens in Navapur town in Maharashtra state where India's first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in chickens on Saturday.

"Two more people have been kept under observation in the isolation ward as they have complained of cough and cold," T.P. Doke, Maharashtra's director of health services, told Reuters, adding one of them, despite undergoing treatment for flu-like symptoms at home, complained he still had fever.

Doke added he had already tested negative for bird flu while the blood sample of the other man -- the culler -- had been sent for testing for avian influenza.

The two new people in quarantine join the dozen others in the isolation ward in a state-run hospital in remote Navapur.

Another 83 people have been tested for avian influenza but were cleared.

"Ninety four out of 95 human samples are negative," India's Health Secretary P.K. Hota told Reuters earlier on Thursday, adding there was still some uncertainty about the last sample.

N.K. Ganguly, the head of Indian Council of Medical Research, said none of the 12 quarantined people showed any "clinical symptoms" for flu.

Culling in Navapur and surrounding areas was over and more than 345,000 poultry had been destroyed but authorities said they had more to do to sanitize the area.

"Feathers sticking out of cages are being removed from chicken cages and from all over the ground and being burned," Upma Chawdhry, a senior official of the federal Animal Husbandry Department, said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNew s&storyID=2006-02-23T161242Z_01_SP56706_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIR DFLU-INDIA.xml&archived=False

I do not want to imply that these individuals are not negative, but I wonder how they are being tested.  There have been several people who initially test negative and then either test positive at a later time or have other close family members become ill and test positive.