NIGERIA: Health officials on continue the hunt for suspected victims of the bird flu virus

Record ID: 236534

  • Title: NIGERIA: Health officials on continue the hunt for suspected victims of the bird flu virus
  • Date: 13th February 2006
  • Summary: WIDE SHOT ALIU ODO, VILLAGE HEAD OF HAWA DAWAKI VILLAGE, WHO LOST MOST OF HIS CHICKENS TO A DISEASE SUSPECTED OF BEING BIRD FLU; CHICKENS LYING DEAD (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALIU ODO, VILLAGE HEAD OF HAWA DAWAKI VILLAGE, SAYING: "The health hazard is there we are meeting but what will be done on the the human aspect will be decided by the ministry of health." LOCAL FARM
  • Embargoed: 28th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVAB5WMGUL42KQL4AKFIVELNHMBE
  • Story Text: Nigerian health officials on Sunday (February 12, 2006) continued the hunt for suspected victims of the bird flu virus but no human case of bird flu in Nigeria has yet been confirmed.
    Nigerian health officials said they had tested two children feared to be the first Africans infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. The children, from an area hit by poultry deaths, appeared to have recovered.
    The virus broke out in early January among poultry in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, but the H5N1 diagnosis was confirmed only last week and authorities are struggling to contain it as it spreads rapidly to farms across the north.
    People can catch the virus, which has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since early 2003, from contact with infected birds, but it cannot yet be spread from one human to another.
    But experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain may mutate into a form that can spread from human to human and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.
    The outbreak of H5N1 in Nigeria is the first known appearance of the virus in Africa.
    Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more than 20 farms have been hit in Kano state alone.
    Farmers in three other northern states have also reported mass deaths of poultry, local media reported.
    Farmers have received little information on how to handle the disease and workers have been using their bare hands to dispose of thousands of sick birds, raising fears of a large number of human infections.
    As in most of sub-Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere in Nigeria -- backyards, city streets, by the side of the road, in crowded markets, on buses. Most poultry is bought live and slaughtered at home.
    The government has ordered suspect birds culled and suspect farms quarantined, but there has been only limited government action on the ground so far.
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