Bird Flu: no cases of human infection

Epidemiologist says there is no chance of humans contracting the disease from “well cooked” meat or eggs. Poultry staff being given anti-viral drugs as a prophylactic.

While it is always good to be cautious several messages on the social networking and Instant messaging (IM) sites, that include various pictures of Bird Flu infected poultry products, are terrorising the public. A photograph of a discoloured, uncut carcass of a poultry bird doing the rounds in WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and other IMs is the most gruesome of all such pictures.

Epidemiologist and senior physician at the ESI hospital T.V. Narayana Rao said there have been no cases of human infection in the country till now. All reports appearing in the media were only of birds getting infected. Bird Flu or Avian Flu (H5N1) was caused by a virus that spreads primarily from animals to humans. There was no chance of humans contracting the disease from “well cooked” meat or eggs, Dr Rao said.

Those working with poultry were being given anti-viral drugs as a prophylactic. They were also being asked to wear masks to cover their eyes, nose and mouth and gloves while handling the birds, he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 826 laboratory-confirmed human cases of Avian Influenza Virus were reported from 16 countries in the world from 2003 to March 31, 2015. Fortunately, India is not one of these 16 countries. Bird flu claimed the lives of 440 persons in the affected countries till date, according to the WHO.

According the latest WHO report, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of China notified 20 additional cases of Avian Flu and 4 deaths. This increases the number of confirmed human cases to 62 from three countries Egypt (37), China (23) and Indonesia (2). Twelve of the 62 patients who contracted Bird Flu succumbed to the infection.

The age range of the human cases in Egypt ranged from one to 77. All but one case had exposure to poultry or poultry markets and the exposure history of the one case was still under investigation.

All the patients were hospitalised and all reportedly received treatment with antiviral medication. Contacts of the patients were kept under observation for 14 days and there have not been any cases, according to the WHO report.

Besides Egypt, China and Indonesia, cases were also registered in Cambodia (4 deaths) and Vietnam (two deaths) in 2014.

In 2013, there were 14 deaths in Cambodia, two in China, three in Egypt, one in Vietnam and one death was also reported in Canada. While the incidence of the disease has increased in Egypt it has declined in all the other countries.