The Hindu : Front Page : Battle against bird flu goes mobile

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 23, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Battle against bird flu goes mobile

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

WAITING FOR BUYERS: The scene at the Ghazipur poultry market in Delhi on Wednesday in the aftermath of the bird flu scare. - PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANYAM

NEW DELHI: With government and private hospitals across the Capital flooded with anxious queries from citizens about the precautions to be taken in the wake of the bird flu which has registered its presence in the country, latest technology including e-mails and SMSs are increasingly being employed by doctors' associations in an effort to clear myths and misconceptions and prepare the public to deal effectively with the emerging situation.

``With reports about the flu coming in, we are getting many questions from people about what to eat, what precautions to take and whether other meat and seafood can be infected. Travellers, too, are coming in for advice and many others want to know if there are vaccinations that can be taken,'' said the Delhi Medical Association president, Dr. K. K. Aggarwal, on Wednesday.

Since responding individually to every query is physically not possible, the DMA has resorted to use of modern technology for transmitting the requisite information accurately and speedily. Already, according to Dr. Aggarwal, hundreds of SMSs and e-mails have been sent out.

With city physicians admitting that Delhi is a "sensitive zone" with several small, unregulated slaughter houses and a number of congested localities, precaution is the ``only cure''.

The Delhi Medical Association in an effort to keep up the information flow has issued a set of eight guidelines for the public, nursing homes and city hospitals to follow. ``In our set of guideline we have said that birds that survive infection without dying can excrete the virus for up to 10 days,'' according to the former DMA president, Dr. Anil Bansal.

While there is no evidence so far that anyone has been infected with bird flu by eating properly cooked eggs or other properly cooked poultry food derived from infected birds, Dr. Bansal adds: ``It is important to know that H5NI virus can survive for at least one month at low temperature. For this reason food preservation measures including freezing and refrigeration will not substantially reduce the concentration of virus in contaminated meat or kill the virus.''

``We have also advised doctors to be vigilant for the next couple of months and tell their patients not to panic as flu is a common condition in our country and every flu is not bird flu. We are also informing people about the fact that the first `attack' of flu is likely to be seen in persons working and handling birds in poultry farms and not among the general public,'' adds Dr. Bansal.

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