Bird flu returns as samples test positive

The issue was highlighted when serum samples of two dead birds from the Nagar and Hazrabati villages in Murshidabad district tested positive for H5 strain of the avian influenza in a Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory.

Not even three months have been passed since last October when India had declared itself free from the avian influenza. The latest positive samples raise the potential pandemic threat anew.

Surveillance measures initiated
As bird flu makes a return, several medical teams have been positioned in and around the infected villages to cull all the poultry birds.

Door-to-door surveillance will be carried out by the expert team, to look for people showing any influenza-like symptoms. People found suffering from cough, cold and respiratory illnesses will be tested for H5N1 infection.

The state officials are anticipating finishing the collection of all the poultry birds, in and around the infected areas within three days.

"The health ministry team will increase door-to-door surveillance within the 10-km infected radius to stop human infection with H5N1. Surveillance in the rest of the country has shown no evidence of the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza," a health ministry official said.

The central government has also issued necessary instructions to take appropriate measures and precautions as laid down by the health ministry to prevent the spread of the lethal infection.

Concern over H1N1-H5N1 co-infection
The bird flu has made a comeback at a time when another deadly virus H1N1 has already been circulating in different areas across the country.

Experts are concerned that the two influenza viruses could combine and mutate genetically into a "more notorious public health enemy" in case the H1N1 flu is also circulating in the bird flu infected area.

According to experts, H5N1 is a more pathogenic form of flu with mortality rate as high as 60 percent. However, the death rate of those infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus is not so steep.

"But we don't know what shape the virus will take once both these strains intermingle. It could become a new bug that is both highly contagious and deadly," the official said.

Bird flu and symptoms
One of the highly pathogenic avian influenzas, bird flu is caused by a virus found in the wild birds. The virus can easily and quickly spread among hundreds or thousands of birds, after a wild bird infects a farm-raised bird such as chicken, duck, and turkey.

Sick birds must then be killed to stop the virus from spreading, according to WebMD.

Symptoms of bird flu include fever, cough, a sore throat, and muscle aches. It may also cause an eye infection (conjunctivitis).

Further, bird flu can quickly progress to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, a serious lung problem that can be deadly.