India- H5N1 new

Bird flu resurfaces in Bengal

May 9th, 2008 - 2:56 pm

Kolkata, May 9 (IANS) Bird flu has resurfaced in Darjeeling district in eastern India, West Bengal’s Animal Resources Development (ARD) Minister Anisur Rehaman confirmed Friday. The H5NI strain of the virus has been detected in Kurseong town in Darjeeling by the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal.

The minister that no cases had been detected after April 4 but the government had been regularly monitoring the districts.

“Last week, around 100 chickens died in Kurseong. We sent samples to the Bhopal laboratory. The officials confirmed Friday morning that the samples were positive,” Rehaman told IANS.

articlehttp://www,birdflubreakingnes,com

Pawan Dixit, Hindustan Times
Kanpur Dehat, August 25, 2008
First Published: 00:17 IST(25/8/2008)
Last Updated: 00:19 IST(25/8/2008)
Rural Kanpur is fighting its most frightening scourge — a mystery disease that has left a long line of bodies in its trail and doesn't seem anywhere finished.
What started from one village two weeks ago has now spread to 350 and has so far claimed 160 lives. Thousands more are bed-ridden. On an average, 15 to 20 people have been dying every day; Saturday saw the highest toll in a day: 24.
The district's health department is somewhat confused about the nature of the disease that has struck. At the beginning, the diagnosis was viral fever. Then doctors concluded that it was falciparum malaria. But after two weeks, they have ruled out both but still don't have an exact answer.
"We really don't know what exactly it is; we are depending on the finding of a team of specialists from New Delhi," said Dr RC Agarwal, the district's new chief medical officer.
Specialists from the Infectious Disease and Surveillance Programme, New Delhi, have collected the blood samples of a few patients. The team will make its findings known in a few days.
But the fear of the unknown has resulted in a mass exodus of villagers. Pulandar and Dhar villages under Malasa block are
the worst affected. About 1,000 people in these two villages alone are battling the disease. Dhar has taken the maximum number of casualties. The village has lost about 30 people but only one doctor has visited it so far. That was 15 days ago.
Kuldeep Singh and Ram Avtaar of Dhar break down screaming: "A lot of people can still be saved; we need doctors." Rajesh (38) of Pulandar village says: "Everyone here is waiting for doctors to come and examine people; but they aren't coming and we are counting our dead." On Sunday morning, the mystery fever claimed Tilak Singh (35) and his nephew Vikas Singh (11).
Dhar still remains a perfect picture of neglect and apathy. Heaps of garbage continue to be littered all over. Houses are surrounded by stinking filth and roads are waterlogged — perfect breeding grounds for diseases like malaria. The village's secondary school has been shut down for an indefinite period. Children would wade through knee-deep water to reach the school. Sad
Santosh Prajapati is struggling to cope with looking after eight family members who have been afflicted by the disease. He has hired a tractor to shift them to a hospital in Kanpur city. "I have borrowed money from my relatives… if they remain here they will die," he says.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=9c992524-8c22-4c60-8dea-c595ff5d1cd7

comment-
This outbreak started 2 weeks ago in one village and has now spread to over 350 villages, according to the report. It appears to me to be something h2h. Even for India this is unusual.

Is WHO on the ground? I haven't read where they are. Maybe I missed it.

While not bird flu news, India is experiencing a serious outbreak of something. It warrants a very close watch on this. It sounds as if it's getting worse.


Mystery fever takes toll among Dalits
28 Aug 2008, 0337 hrs IST, Faiz Rahman Siddiqui,TNN

KANPUR: With 20 more deaths being reported from the Kanpur Dehat region during the last 24 hours, the mystery fever continued to take a heavy toll, especially among the poor Dalit families.

However, the state health minister and the four MLAs of the region - three from BSP and one from SP - have so far not cared to visit the region despite the fact that 70 per cent of the victims are Dalits.

On Wednesday, TOI visited primary health centres at Gujrain and Purwa Khurd in Dalit-dominated Sarwankhera block of Akbarpur tehsil but both were locked. Villagers claimed that two PHCs had remained non-functional for the last six months.

The pharmacist and the nurse deployed at these centres were seldom available, they said. As a result, patients were being rushed to the district hospital.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mystery_fever_among_Dalits_in_UP/articleshow/3414258.cms