After four days of intensive surveillance taken up by the State and district health authorities within a 10 km radius of Thorrur village in Ranga Reddy district, so far no persons have been found with symptoms of avian flu. According to health officials here, workers who personally handled culling operations and those who worked in poultry farms, displayed no symptoms of avian flu, which are same as those of swine flu.
As part of surveillance operations, on Friday, health authorities screened another 4,359 persons. Since Tuesday, the health authorities have screened 29,260 persons in and around the villages in Thorrur.
The members of the special Central team that came from NCDC and Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) visited the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) laboratory in Hyderabad to ascertain its diagnostic capabilities in case of a human infection of avian flu. “So far, the situation is under control and our surveillance will continue for ten more days. There have been no cases of human infection of avian flu. Our district and State health teams will continue to take up personal visits and hold health camps in the locality,” JD, epidemiology, Dr. G. Srinivas Rao said.
The Central team is also expected to visit Gandhi Hospital on Saturday to assess the disaster preparedness and also likely to visit the affected cluster in Thorrur village.
