INDIA: "Humans may have mild Bird Flu"

Humans may have contracted bird flu: Officials


Associated Press

Posted online: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 1911 hours IST

New Delhi, February 22: India’s Health Secretary said on Wednesday that
‘it is a distinct possibility’ that some people in the country have
contracted bird flu, a news agency reported.



P K Hota, the top civil servant in the Union Health Ministry, said tests on
nine people hospitalised with flu-like symptoms were still being analysed
and that results were expected on Thursday.

“We do not rule out the possibility of humans being affected, and it is a
distinct possibility,” he was quoted as saying.

However, he said that even if the tests are positive, those affected would
have only a ‘mild episode’.

http://
www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=63283



http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/377482D8-B8F6-406D-96 69-
AE996E52A9EA.htm

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -" At least seven people quarantined in
India with suspected bird flu have tested negative for the deadly H5N1
strain, officials said on Wednesday.

"Health workers have killed tens of thousands of birds in Navapur, a
remote town in the western state of Maharashtra where an outbreak
among chickens was confirmed on Saturday.

A total of 12 people were quarantined in Navapur either because they
suffered flu-like symptoms or as a precaution and Vijay Satbir Singh,
Maharashtra's top health official, told Reuters in Mumbai he was
concerned over possible human cases." Feb 22/06

* All initial tests in Turkey were also negative till confirmed later.

Edited by Rick

Oh good, a new strain! "mild bird flu"  I hope that's the kind I get.

mightymouse wrote: Yes - and when some are in body bags they'll - Just be taken a nap.

sure its a nap didn't you see the fine print underneath the words death of unknown virus?

and if more and more people are being hospitialized it makes you stop and think don't it?

 

'Bird flu could have jumped to humans'

NEW DELHI: The Indian government said on Wednesday it could "not rule out the possibility" of avian influenza spreading to human beings in a village in Maharashtra.

"We cannot rule out the possibility of bird flu being transmitted to humans. There is a distinct possibility of such transfusion," Health Secretary Prasanna Hota told a TV news channel.

Hota was reacting to reports that two people in Maharashtra's Navapur village, from where India's first case of bird flu was confirmed on Saturday, were suffering from a mild case of human avian influenza.

Twelve people, including two children, had been kept in an isolation ward in Navapur's sub-district hospital after they reported flu-like symptoms. The two people displaying bird flu-like symptoms were part of this group.

Hota said there was a "protocol" to be followed in such cases and details about the suspected cases would be available only on Thursday.

This apart, blood samples had been collected from 104 Navapur residents to ascertain if the H5N1 strain of avian influenza had affected them.

Known to spread to human beings, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has resulted in nearly 100 human casualties across Southeast Asia, mostly in Vietnam. It has so far been reported in seven countries.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1424639, curpg-1.cms

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/377482D8-B8F6-406D-96 69-AE996E52A9EA.htm

If we are going to see "hot zones" generating mutations/polymorphisms, I'd place my money on Africa and India. We may have news coming out of Poland very soon, about chickens and a suspicious death.