Pakistan gears up to tackle bird flu
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Lahore: The avian flu epidemic that has swept across parts of neighbouring India has led Pakistan's Health Ministry to begin putting in place a number of preventative measures.
In a letter sent out to provincial health officials, hospital heads and other health workers, the ministry warned that hospitals should remain on "high alert" and make "emergency arrangements" to tackle any outbreak of avian flu.
On February 1 the authorities confirmed the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus at two poultry farms in Karachi, but with no human infection so far. Pakistan, with the cooperation of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has started training health workers in dealing with suspected cases of avian flu. Two infectious diseases isolation wards are now being set up, with WHO assistance, at medical facilities in Peshawar and Abbotabad in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "We are providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and funds will be mobilised,” said Fawad Khan, WHO’s avian human influenza coordinator on February 4 in Islamabad. The ministry has advised those dealing directly with poultry or other birds to follow international standards, including the use of goggles, gloves and masks to help avoid contracting the virus. However, given current levels of awareness amongst such workers, it is unlikely such measures will be adopted: "My two brothers and I work at a poultry farm in the Raiwind area, on the outskirts of Lahore. We have heard about bird flu, but we have never used gloves or other equipment and we don't possess such gear," said Muhammad Irfan, 18. Poultry sector Pakistan’s poultry farming sector is a huge industry, with at least 12,000 farms of varying sizes dotted across the country, according to figures from the governments Livestock Department. Most farms are located in the NWFP. The business employs thousands of people, but awareness about bird flu and how to prevent it remains limited. "I am not educated and what I know about this sickness I have heard only from friends," said Irfan, adding: "God will save us from any risk." Human case Pakistan faced a bird-flu panic a few months ago, when it was feared a mutation of the virus may have caused a case of human-to-human transmission, much feared by international health experts. In late November 2007, Muhammad Ilyas, a poultry farm worker, was admitted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar with symptoms of bird flu. He died within hours, and tested positive for the H5N1 virus that causes the disease. The discovery that Ilyas's brother, Muhammad Idrees, had died some days earlier and the admission of other relatives to the hospital raised fears that the virus had been transmitted from one human to the other. A WHO team which visited Pakistan from Geneva, and carried out genetic sequence testing said in January there was no confirmation of human-to-human transmission. Since then, the Pakistani authorities have been accused in the media of dragging their feet and not doing enough to prevent a wider outbreak. But reports from India, coupled with recent events in Karachi, appear to be spurring them into action, with hospitals issuing directives regarding the treatment of patients showing symptoms of avian flu. Experts question preventative measures Yet despite those efforts, some experts say that not enough is being done. A workshop on bird flu in Asia organised last month in Lahore by the Pakistan Medical Society (PMS) called for poultry farms and poultry selling areas to be moved away from densely populated localities to avoid transmission of the virus to humans. According to Masood Akhtar, the PMS chairperson, the "non-professional manner" in which the poultry business was conducted in many Asian countries raised the "risks posed by bird flu to humans". He called for the comprehensive vaccination of birds, to make them less susceptible to the virus, as well as methods to ensure the safe disposal of poultry waste. The number of cases of bird flu reported in recent months is still low - with six to eight persons reportedly affected - but the potential for a wider epidemic remains very real. However, as yet there has been no widespread awareness-raising campaign. Source: IRIN |
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"Spread of avian flu by drinking water"Author:
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
Time: 09.02.2008 15:54
Comment: There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0829.htm. See also the WHO web side: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emerging/h5n1background.pdf and http://www.umg-verlag.de/umwelt-medizin-gesellschaft/407_m_s.html “Influenza: Initial introduction of influenza viruses to the population via abiotic water supply versus biotic human viral respirated droplet shedding” and http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907700294/abstract?iseop=true “Transmission of influenza A in human beings”. Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. There is no evidence that influenza primarily is transmitted by saliva droplets. Infected birds and poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have very intensive contact to drinking water. To prove viruses in water is difficult because of dilution. If you find no viruses you can not be sure that there are not any. On the other hand in water viruses remain virulent for a long time. Water has to be tested for influenza viruses by cell culture and in particular by the more sensitive molecular biology method PCR. In hot climates/the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and floods. Virulence of influenza viruses depends on temperature and time. Special in cases of local water supplies with “young” and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels, ponds, rivers or rice paddies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. At 24°C e.g. in the tropics the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 2 days. In temperate climates for “older” water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses. At 7°C the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 14 days. Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum. The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses. Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann - Free Science Journalist - soddemann-aachen@t-online.de |
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