The T.N. Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine has issued guidelines for the prevention and control of Avian Influenza (Influenza A H5N1).
In a circular issued, the DPH said bird flu has been reported in Alappuzha district in Kerala this month. All District Health Officers have been instructed to follow the guidelines and strengthen surveillance on Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI) and enter data on the Integrated Health Information Platform-Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme portal, on a daily basis.
The officers were asked to pay special attention to districts bordering Kerala and districts where poultry rearing is widespread, to carry out preventive measures. The Directorate has outlined the clinical features, management protocol, precaution and infection control practices as well as symptomatic and supportive therapy in its guidelines.
Infected persons, the guidelines said, would develop a flu-like illness characterised by fever, headache, myalgia, cough and shortness of breath.
Among the recommendations for surveillance and management were enhancing surveillance of ILI in all government and private hospitals and documenting the history of travel to bird flu-affected areas and those engaged in poultry rearing. All Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI)/ILI cases should be reported on the portal. Samples of persons with suspected symptoms of bird flu are to be collected using personal protective equipment (PPE) and sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune through the State Public Health Laboratory.
Last week, the entry of all poultry and poultry products from Kerala and Karnataka was banned in the Nilgiris.
