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By Estelle Shirbon 6 minutes ago
JAJI, Nigeria (Reuters) - The mysterious mass deaths of chickens in northern Nigeria fueled fears on Thursday the H5N1 avian flu virus was spreading rapidly just days after it was first detected in Africa. The World Health Organization said Africa was at high risk of widespread outbreaks in birds. It rolled out an immediate public education campaign, piggybacking it on a polio vaccination program, to warn people how to avoid becoming infected with the often deadly virus.
Bird flu has killed at least 88 people and infected 165 since it re-emerged in late 2003, most of the victims in east Asia. Indonesia said two women in their 20s had tested positive for the virus and were being treated at a specialist Jakarta hospital, while the WHO confirmed an 11th case in China.
The World Health Organization and other experts say H5N1 is poised to mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person. If it does, it could spark a human influenza pandemic in which millions could die.
The virus has been spreading steadily westward, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 200 million birds. It occasionally infects people and killed four children in an outbreak in eastern Turkey last month and claimed the life of a teenager in Iraq.
This week, it was found in poultry in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Many observers say African countries lack the health and disease control systems to contain the virus.
"The single most important public health priority at this stage is to warn people about the dangers of close contact with sick or dead birds infected with H5N1," WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook said in a statement posted on WHO's Web site at http://www.who.int.
RISKY SLAUGHTER
"Experience in Asian countries and most recently in Turkey underscores the fact that immediate, clear public information is critical to help protect human health," Lee added.
"The home slaughter and consumption of birds which appear to be sick is high-risk behavior. Ideally, people culling and disposing of birds should have protective equipment."
WHO said a campaign already under way in Nigeria to vaccinate children against polio would be used to help monitor for human bird flu cases and to help coordinate containment, treatment, and laboratory work.
"African health systems are already struggling to cope with children and adults suffering from HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory infections and other infectious conditions," WHO noted.
Nigeria's Agriculture Ministry said 45,000 chickens had died in Kaduna state in the north of the country, and confirmed cases of H5N1 had also been found at three farms in neighboring states.
At the battery farm where the first H5N1 sample was taken, outside Jaji village in Kaduna state, 15 big concrete hangars used as chicken pens were empty on Thursday and workers said all the birds had died about a month ago.
"They burned them and buried them. They didn't tell us what had happened. I heard it on the news," said a farmworker, asking not to be identified.
An Agriculture Ministry official in Kano state said authorities had ordered all farms with mass bird deaths to be quarantined, but they would not exterminate the flocks and pay farmers until H5N1 was confirmed by new tests.
"Once we confirm the test is positive, we will go there and destroy the chickens. Because of the compensation, we are worried people might take advantage," he said.
SPREAD IN CHINA
WHO confirmed an additional human case of bird flu in China, in a young female farmer from the southeastern province of Fujian who is in the hospital.
"The continuing occurrence of sporadic human cases indicates that the virus is continuing to circulate in birds in at least some parts of the country," WHO said.
Greece said it had found an H5 bird flu virus in three swans and had sent samples to Britain to find out if it was the deadly H5N1 strain.
If so, it would be the first confirmed case of H5N1 in wild birds in a European Union member state. The EU said it would enforce precautionary measures in the affected areas starting on Friday to try to stop the spread, especially as migratory birds return in the coming months.
Greece's neighbor Bulgaria has also sent samples to Britain for testing after finding H5 in dead swans. A series of H5N1 outbreaks have already been confirmed in birds in Romania, which shares a border with Bulgaria.
The Dutch Farm Ministry said on Thursday it would order poultry producers to keep birds indoors starting next month to prevent the threat of infection from migratory birds. Germany has announced similar measures.
(Additional reporting by Ade Rina in Jakarta, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Alkman Granitsas in Athens, Kremena Miteva in Sofia, Anna Mudeva in Amsterdam and Maggie Fox in Washington)
