Health scare in Indian state as bird flu spreads

December 12, 2008 8:09 AM

India - Medical workers were going door-to-door to look for people with symptoms of avian influenza in northeast India Friday as the infection in birds spread further, officials said.


So far, no human cases of infection of the deadly H5N1 virus have been reported in the affected Assam state, but authorities stepped up a health drive after 150 people developed some symptoms of the infection.


"About 150 people were treated for fever and upper respiratory tract infections in bird flu-hit areas. We have put the patients in isolation," senior health official Parthajyoti Gogoi told AFP.


Bird flu was ruled out in all cases, the official said.


The virus has spread in the past two weeks across six Assam districts, where an estimated 300,000 people live in the affected areas.


More than 250,000 poultry have been slaughtered so far and an estimated 150,000 more have been ordered to be killed.


The government was "worried" about the infection spreading to humans, as authorities may not be able to cope, local health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.


The sale of poultry and poultry products has been banned in most parts of the state.


India reported its worst outbreak of bird flu early this year in the eastern state of West Bengal.


The WHO says the deadly H5N1 strain has killed nearly 250 people, mostly in Southeast Asia, since 2003.