’Bird flu virus similar to one that hit Maharashtr

     

'Bird flu virus similar to one that hit Maharashtra'
30 Jan 2008, 0225




NEW DELHI: The H5N1 virus, presently wreaking havoc in West Bengal, is similar to the one that hit Nawapur in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra in February 2006.

Scientists from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, who have completed gene sequencing of the H5N1 virus isolated from West Bengal, have told the Union health ministry in an official report submitted on Tuesday, that the virus is the highly virulent Asian strain similar to the one circulating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Speaking to TOI , health secretary Naresh Dayal said: "The scientists, in their report, said that the virus is different from the strain that hit Manipur in 2007. The Manipur virus was more the Indonesian type. The present virus is highly infectious like the Maharashtra strain." This finding has now made the Union health ministry request the external affairs ministry to ask Bangladesh to share the genetic history and information of the virus that has affected one-third of the districts in the neighbouring country. Because of the proximity of West Bengal's bird flu affected areas to Bangladesh, India feels the virus may have entered this country through the illegal poultry trade.

Dayal said: "If we see that the virus circulating in Bengal is the same as the Bangladeshi type, we can almost be certain that illegal trade of infected poultry from Bangladesh into India was the cause of the present outbreak. If the strains don't match, the virus may have then been brought into India by migratory birds." He added: "That Bangladesh is our source of infection is till now just a matter of conjecture since Bangladesh has been seeing an uncontrolled outbreak of H5N1 since March. This has made us take for granted that the virus came from Bangladesh. However, unless we compare gene sequencing of the two types we can't say that definitely.

"We want Bangladesh to share information about the virus so that we can undertake its gene sequence and know the source of our outbreak. We don't want to manipulate the virus and make vaccines out of it," he added.

Influenza A subtype H5N1 is the one that can cause illness in humans and other animal species. While HA is found on the surface of the influenza virus and is responsible for binding the virus to the cell that is being infected, NA is an enzyme found on the surface of the virus that facilitates the release of progeny viruses from infected cells.

TOI reported on January 27 that India feared the outbreak in Bangladesh was far worse that what was being actually reported by its government. The need to get the neighbouring country to be more transparent in the control and containment operations of the disease was also getting louder in India.