The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Meet to discuss avian flu action plan today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Meet to discuss avian flu action plan today

Sarah Hiddleston

No human cases detected in India
Sufficient stocks of Tamiflu in State

Chennai: An action plan for responding to an outbreak of avian influenza in Tamil Nadu will be discussed at a workshop conducted by the Directorate of Public Health on Tuesday.

It will focus on handling avian flu, detecting early signs of infection in humans and where to get treatment, Director, Public Health, Padmanabhan, told The Hindu.

The plan was evolved following the recent outbreak of the deadly strain (H5N1) of avian flu in West Bengal, where nearly one lakh poultry birds died over the past two weeks.

Persistent presence of H5N1 among the poultry population poses two major risks for public health -- direct infection from birds to humans, leading to high fever, viral pneumonia and organ failure and the virus mutating into a form that is highly infectious and moving easily from person to person.

Nearly 220 of the 351 people infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu have died since the disease was first detected in 2003, according to latest WHO figures released on January 21. Most of these occurred in Asia. China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand were among the worst affected.

There have been no human cases detected in India so far. “There are two types of people who are most at risk of infection, those who work with poultry, especially those who handle the birds, and those who cook birds or eggs,” said Dr. Padmanabhan.

Discussions at the meeting, in which Health Minister M.R.K. Panneerselvam will participate, will focus on implementing regular check-ups in the State and intensive training for medics and paramedics. It will identify hospitals that will distribute stocks of the two drugs known to cure the disease.

Stocks of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), one of the two medicines to treat the disease, are currently sufficient to deal with any outbreak in humans in the State.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss told The Hindu on Saturday that the Centre had “made a conscious decision not to retail Tamiflu, because it is not intended just for bird flu but for other types of flu. We are worried that resistance will come if it is widely available or that panic buying may ensue. It will only be available in government accredited institutions and not medical shops.”

He also said the Government had had discussions with three pharmaceutical companies to ensure continuous supply of medicines. India, Dr Ramadoss believes, is well prepared: “In West Bengal, culling of birds, awareness, screening of patients, all that has started.” Measures being undertaken, he said, included house-to-house screening of patients for those within a 10 km radius of infected birds, hospitalisation of those with signs of fever or pneumonia, distribution of ventilators to hospitals and ensuring supply of personal safety equipment for public health workers.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu