The Hindu : New Delhi News : Avian flu threat deepens

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 07, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Avian flu threat deepens

Staff Reporter

`With 86 p.c. fatality rate the disease has reached a critical stage'

NEW DELHI: The threat posed by the global outbreak of Asian bird flu or avian influenza -- clinically known as H5N1 -- is especially acute for India, the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) has warned.

The disease recognises no borders and can traverse continents. Most alarmingly, it has an 86 per cent fatality rate.

Though originating in birds, avian influenza can jump species and infect humans. The warning comes now because the disease has reached a "critical stage where it could easily become a human pandemic," said DMA President K.K. Aggarwal.

Till now no human-to-human transmissions of the disease have been recorded. However, the last outbreak began in South-East Asia where large numbers of humans cohabit with poultry. It claimed lives throughout the region before it crossed continents. Cases were reported as far away as Canada and Europe before it was brought under control by vaccinations developed in conjunction with the United Nations and World Health Organisation.

The DMA warning is based on the counsel of the two international organisations and WHO member, Shigeru Omi, who warned that "the virus has behaved in ways that suggests it remains as unstable, unpredictable and versatile as ever".

With 64 reported cases this year (higher than the total for last year), Vietnam, according to WHO, is "chronically infected" and with other neighbouring countries -- Cambodia and Indonesia -- reporting their first cases this year, the race is on to try and prevent an outbreak of the disease.

The DMA believes that India, where a large number of people live in close proximity to birds, also needs to prepare against an outbreak of the disease. It has taken the initiative and written to over 10,000 doctors in the Delhi region informing them about the danger of an outbreak.

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