WHO states West Bengal Bird Flu Serious

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now described the Bird flu H5N1 situation in West Bengal as "serious". The H5N1 virus causes a type of influenza in birds that is highly contagious. It does not at present usually infect people unless they come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces but there are fears that the virus may evolve into a form more infectious to humans leading to a severe outbreak of deadly infections.

The deadly H5N1 virus has now spread to two more districts in West Bengal and this was confirmed only an hour after the the bird flu situation was declared "under control" by the state government.

13 of the 19 West Bengal districts are now in the grip of avian influenza.

West Bengal Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman reported that;

"We have two more districts, South 24 Parganas adjoining Kolkata and West Midnapore, in the grip of bird flu. The affected area in South 24 Parganas is in Budge Budge (Kashipore and Alampur panchayat areas) and in West Midnapore it is Chawkbecha village under Lowada panchayat area. We were hoping to complete culling operations by Monday, but now more time will be needed," he said.

Rahman confirmed that the bird flu had also spread to new places in districts that were already affected like Cooch Behar (Mathabhanga) and Murshidabad (Samshergunge) .

A press conference an hour earlier with Health Minister Surya Kanta Mishra and Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta had declared the bird flu situation under control.

Over 1.5 million birds had been culled up to Sunday morning and West Bengal had planned to slaughter about 2.2 million birds by Monday.

"About 1,000 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are engaged in the work. The culling target of 2.2 million is likely to be completed by Monday. But the completion of the process will be delayed by new infections," Rahman said.

Finance Minister Dasgupta said the rehabilitation package would include compensation for at least half a million families.

The total loss from the West Begal Bird Flu outbreak is estimated at around Rs.1.5 billion.

Senior health official R.S. Shukla confirmed that police and civic authorities were keeping a watch at Calcutta's entry and exit points to prevent bird flu contamination in the metropolitan area of around 5 million people. The population of greater Calcutta is around 10 million.

Human samples sent for laboratory tests to date have proved negative but the state government equipping hospitals with ventilators and Tamiflu tablets.

On Friday, it was revealed that the Bird Flu outbreak had reached Sankrail in Howrah, barely 10 km from Calcutta.

The 13 avian flu affected districts to date are Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Bankura, Malda, Hooghly, Cooch Behar, Purulia, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and West Midnapore. The virus was first confirmed in Birbhum and South Dinajpu.