December 20, 2007

 

Pakistanis warned about handling poultry after bird flu cases

 

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Pakistanis on Thursday (December 20) to take precautions while handling poultry as experts investigate the country's first human bird flu cases.

 

No new cases have been discovered since a WHO team arrived earlier this week, but health workers have been on high alert to monitor patients with flu-like symptoms who could be infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, said Khalif Bile, the WHO country representative.

 

The Health Ministry has detected up to nine suspect cases who fell ill earlier this month and in November, including several siblings. The WHO experts were working to piece together how they became infected and whether human-to-human transmission could have occurred. Poultry outbreaks had been reported in the area before the human cases.

 

As many travelers head home for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, Bile said care should be taken when slaughtering and preparing poultry. He said the Health Ministry was reiterating the message with a public awareness campaign.

 

"The public is being informed through the media what precautions to take without any alarm," he said. "I think the situation so far seems to be under control, but we are monitoring it."

 

A second team from the US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 in Cairo arrived in Pakistan on Thursday. They were expected to retest samples already gathered from a number of patients who were positive for the H5N1 virus in initial government analysis.

 

The WHO team has been working with hospital staff to strengthen infection control measures, while doing detective work to try to determine the relationship of the cases, when they were sickened and whether they were in contact with poultry.

 

"The hospitals are much better organized," Bile said. "They have been seen by WHO, and there are no cases as of today or yesterday. They are there to address all of the potential risks."

 

At least 209 people have died worldwide from the virus, which began plaguing Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the WHO. It remains hard for people to catch, but scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.