Scanner on 10 with fever

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Malda, Dec. 16: District officials in Malda are worried about a family of six and two couples suffering from fever for the past week at Satgharia village.

The family owned 12 chickens. All died days before bird flu was confirmed in this pocket of the Narhatta gram panchayat area.

Labourer Kurban Ali, his wife, mother and three children have been taking a quack’s medicines.

Ali said the high temperature they have been running in the evenings has made them weak and they have no appetite. About the birds, he said: “When they died, we threw them into the river.”

Four others — Ilam Mistry and Nazrul Islam, and their wives — are also running a high temperature.

The couples, too, are being treated by quacks.

A team of doctors visited the Satgharia and Budhia villages today and collected blood samples of those suffering from fever.
Hattip Dutchy with a follow up from IOH

Fever follows poultry death
Malda, Dec. 16:
The district administration is worried about a family of six suffering from fever for the past one week in Satghoria, 12km from here. The family owned 12 chickens, which died just before bird flu was detected in the village located in Narhatta gram panchayatFour others in the same panchayat area are also suffering from high temperature.A day labourer, Kurban Ali, and his wife, mother and three children are depending on medicines prescribed by a quack. According to him, after dusk they start shivering with fever. The disease has made them weak and they have no appetite for food.About the birds, Kurban said: “When they died we threw them into the river. It was at that time when the Prime Minister had come to Malda.”
Manmohan Singh was supposed to visit the district on December 7 but Kurban did not know that the trip was cancelled at the last moment.Iliam Mistry and Nazrul Islam, along with their wives, from Budhia village are also visiting quacks.“We cannot afford to bear the expenses to visit the district hospital for medical treatment. We are solely dependent on the village quack. But his medicines are not working,” Mistry said.A team of doctors visited the Satghoria and Budia villages today and collected the blood samples of those suffering from the unknown fever.“The disease will be diagnosed only after we receive the blood report,” chief medical officer of health of the district Srikanta Roy said. He said his department would arrange for the treatment of the patients suffering from the unknown disease.