BIRD FLU IN INDIA

On February 24, 2006, the dreaded virus H5N1, which caused the bird flu or avian flu disease, was detected in a few samples of poultry taken from a farm in Uchchal located in the Surat district of Gujarat, India. This prompted the government authorities to carry out culling operations in and around the affected area. These affected farms were located near Navapur, situated in the neighboring Maharashtra state, the site where the first bird flu cases in poultry chicken in India were reported on February 18, 2006.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over 180 million birds either died or were culled as a result of this disease. The virus H5N1 is believed to have spread across the globe through wild fowl and migratory birds. The first case of bird flu infecting humans was reported in Hong Kong in 1997. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), from 2003, around 92 of the 170 people infected with the H5N1 virus had died. Most of these deaths were in South-East Asian countries like China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, with Vietnam recording the major share of deaths. The main cause for infection among humans was contact with infected birds.

So far, all the 95 suspected human cases of bird flu in India have tested negative, but the government and health officials are on high alert. Health experts believe that if the virus mutates to a more dangerous form, it would lead to a global pandemic of enormous proportions. The WHO has estimated that a pandemic lasting a year could kill millions and result in a loss of US$ 800 billion to the global economy. The virus H5N1 belongs to the same family of viruses that led to the infamous ‘La Pesadilla’ or ‘Spanish Flu Pandemic’ in 1918. The global toll of that pandemic was estimated to be between 50 million and 100 million human lives.

The H5N1 virus has been known to spread from one country to another following the route of migratory birds. Many regions of Europe had already reported the death of wild migratory birds as a result of bird flu. On February 25, 2006, France confirmed its first case of bird flu infection among domestic poultry when hundreds of turkeys were found dead on a farm in the country’s eastern region. The French President Mr. Jacques Chirac had appealed for calm among the consumers.

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