Italy checks for more H5N1 cases among bi

13 February 2006

ROME:

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Health workers fanned out today in the southern countryside and the government urged people not to touch dead birds after Italy detected the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 virus in swans.

The health ministry said 22 wild swans had now been found dead in three southern regions, confirming the arrival in the European Union of the strain of the disease that can be lethal for humans.

Of the 22 dead birds, five – two on the mainland and three on the island of Sicily – were killed by the highly pathogenic strain of the virus.

The arrival of bird flu in Italy dominated the front pages of Sunday newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for an April general election.

The Health Ministry said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north.

The ministry issued an appeal to Italians not to touch any dead birds they may encounter but to call fire brigades or local health services.

In the southern Puglia region, some 50 health workers and technicians were checking the area around the nature reserve of Torre Colimena where one of the dead birds was found, Ansa news agency reported.
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They were also making spot checks on poultry in a three-kilometre – as required by a government plan – but there were no immediate reports of more infected birds.

Checks were also being made in Calabria, the other southern mainland region where dead birds were found.

Saverio Cirininna, a regional health official in Sicily, told Ansa that hospitals there were put on preventive alert just as they had been three years ago when the Sars outbreak hit parts of Asia.

But officials have stressed that there was little chance of humans being infected because the birds were wild animals and not farm poultry as has been the case in some other countries.

At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. Asian countries affected by the virus have destroyed millions of birds.

Experts fear that H5N1 will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person. If it does so, it could cause a pandemic that could kill millions of people.

The Italian government has imposed a ban on the transportation of animals susceptible to the virus in the three regions.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was confident Italy was ready to deal with the outbreak and that the risk to humans was small.

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