Bird Flu spreads fast - chickens infected all over the country - door to door search starts
Kiran Chaube
Feb. 20, 2006

Bird Flu is spreading at the speed of light and people are getting infected all over the country.

India began a door-to-door search for people with fever on Monday, quarantining six people in hospital as the world's second most populous nation tried to contain its first outbreak of bird flu.

In Europe, France tried to calm consumer fears after its first case of the H5N1 virus was discovered at the weekend by asking people to eat chicken.

India's health minister said the situation was "under control". As the two distant nations coped with their first cases of bird flu, which has infected 171 people worldwide and killed 93, authorities in Egypt shut down eight zoos for weeks after 83 birds died there, some containing the deadly H5N1 strain.

At least 11 countries have reported bird flu outbreaks over the past three weeks, an indication the deadly virus is spreading faster.

In India, officials in the remote district of Nandurbar in western Maharashtra state launched a door-to-door check for people with fever, and continued a mass cull of between 300,000 and half a million birds.

Six people, including three young children, with flu-like symptoms were hospitalised on Monday, joining a woman and a child who were placed in an isolation ward the previous day.

"Eight people are in isolation. We are keeping our fingers crossed," federal health secretary P.K. Hota told a news conference in New Delhi. "This disease cannot be wished away but it can be contained."

He said the government had stocked 100,000 courses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu and planned to source another 50,000. Nearly 100,000 chicken had been culled so far, he added.

India, known for its poor health care system, was also testing about 30 more people for avian flu after 50,000 birds died in Nandurbar and tests on some fowls showed H5N1.

"There is no confirmed case of human avian influenza. I would like to assure ... the situation is closely monitored and under control," Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told parliament.

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