IVORY COAST: Ivory coast confirms cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu, the sixth African country to be hit by the virus.

Record ID: 182508

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Ivory coast confirms cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu, the sixth African country to be hit by the virus.
  • Date: 7th May 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) DOCTOR ALPHONSE DOUATY, AGRICULTURE MINISTER, SAYING: "On a ministry level, it will be a question of systematically seeking any families which have had contacts with infected birds, and putting them under medical supervision."
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ITP1RPZNRVK55CZ00VMA6GMU
  • Story Text: Tests at a reference laboratory have confirmed deadly H5N1 bird flu in Ivory Coast, triggering extra control measures in the sixth African country hit by the virus, Ivorian animal health authorities said on Thursday (May 4).
    The Ivory Coast's epidemiological animal health surveillance network said tests by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) laboratory in Padua, Italy, had confirmed birds in the main city Abidjan had contracted the virus.
    "The dead ducks tested positive, the dead chickens were positive. These results indicate that bird flu has reached Abidjan," Agriculture Minister Alphonse Douaty, told a news conference.
    Poultry sales would be banned within a radius of 3 km (2 miles) of the sites where H5N1 had been confirmed, officials said.
    Douati announced further steps to control and prevent the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 100 people since 2003, mainly in Asia.
    "We are going to take measures to remove chickens from the markets (in Abidjan district) for some time," he told reporters, adding that chicken sellers would be reimbursed for birds taken from them and slaughtered.
    "That doesn't mean that all the chickens are ill. We are doing it to clean and disinfect everywhere they are sold," he added.
    The OIE said a week ago the West African country had reported its first H5N1 outbreaks based on tests by two local clinics.
    Speaking on state television late on Wednesday evening (May 3), Douati said several ducks and a sparrowhawk had died from bird flu in Abidjan, the country's main port and business capital.
    The government is looking for the families who were in contact with the birds that tested positive and would put them under surveillance for 10 days, the minister said on Thursday.
    "On a ministry level, it will be a question of systematically seeking the families which have had contacts with infected birds, and putting them under medical supervision," he said.
    Douati also appealed to international bodies including the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to help Ivory Coast control bird flu and ensure safe supplies of chicken, a popular food source.
    The ministry, with the help of the World Health Organisation, would prepare stocks of vaccines and medications so they could intervene if there was a human case, he said.
    Since the spread of the H5N1 virus around the world from Asia became regarded as inevitable last year, many experts have voiced fears that poor human and animal health infrastructure in Africa would allow it to spread undetected and unchecked in the poorest continent, where millions of chickens live in backyards.
    In West Africa, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Burkina Faso have already confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu this year, but so far no human infections have been found.
    But in Egypt, in Africa's far northeast, at least 13 people have contracted the disease, including four who have died.
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