Swine flu imminent in country: ICDDR,B

The spate of the global swine flu is imminent in Bangladesh in coming weeks, a scientist of ICDDR,B said Thursday, urging all to be prepared to face the outbreak of the disease that may stem from travellers, reports BSS.
Stephen P Luby, head of ICDDR’B’s infectious disease and vaccine division, said the Novel A (H1N1) virus travels from country to country and Bangladesh was equally vulnerable because of its international relations and movement of people all over the world.
“We should expect Novel influenza A H1N1 is coming in Bangladesh in weeks as it is not isolated from the rest of the world,” said Steve Luby, who also represents the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, Atlanta, USA.
A senior public health expert of the government echoed the Western scientist and said, “We cannot rule it out.”
He said there might already have infected persons in the country, despite different government preventive measures that include an ongoing nationwide flu surveillance and screening at 15 ports of entries.
Steve said the people should not be panicked about the import of the flu that has already affected more than 11,000 people in 41 countries and claimed nearly 85 lives since the outbreak of A (H1N1) influenza that emerged in Mexico and the United States last month.
The World Health Organization (WHO) raised its flu alert level at five, signalling an “imminent pandemic” and WHO chief Margaret Chan Thursday listed a new swine flu criteria that might prompt her to declare a flu pandemic with alert six. Chan in the World Health Assembly in Geneva said she would not hesitate to move to the top phase six of the pandemic alert system “if it was appropriate”.
Steve said prevention should be given priority in Bangladesh even after any outbreaks. He listed a number of suggestions to control person to person infection of the flu virus, which is not lethal like H5N1 (avian influenza). He said the ill people should be kept at homes, while personal and respiratory hygiene should be maintained strictly.
“Around 80 percent of Bangladesh people cough and sneeze in air in open places, while 11 percent cough on hands and nine percent uses sari or clothes during coughing and sneezing,” said the scientist, referring to a recent study on 1,122 episodes.
He also suggested taking plenty of sleep, physical activity, drinking plenty of fluid, eating inexpensive nutritious food for better immunity so that the virus cannot attack easily.
Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) said the government was fully prepared to deal with any outbreaks of swine flu in Bangladesh, which has prepared itself in phases to fight avian flu since 2006.
He said the country has three levels of actions—case detection, outbreak control and service delivery. More than 11,000 people have so far been screened at 15 ports including Zia International Airport from early this month. Adequate stocks of antiviral have also been ensured side by side with keeping 23 isolation centers ready.
James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) organised the function “Swine Flu: Global and Local Perspective” at ICDDR’B. Professor and Director of JPGSPH Dr Anwar Islam chaired the function, which was also addressed by Dr Selina Khatun of WHO and BRAC University Vice Chancellor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed and Dr Nasima Selim of JPGSPH.