Threat to human beings from bird flu ruled out

The government on Thursday ruled out possibility of any threat to human beings from the bird flu that hit birds at two farms in NWFP. It said the preliminary reports have confirmed that the virus that struck farm chickens in two north-western cities early this week was a 'mild' H5 strain and is not capable of transmission to human beings.
"We have received preliminary reports that it was a mild H5 strain that confirmed that human beings have no threats from the virus," Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan told reporters here after the inaugural ceremony of the PIMS Symposium, 2006.
Responding to a question, the minister disputed with some reports that the government has not sent the samples to London yet for ascertaining the presence of the virus.
"It is a reconfirmation exercise and of course, we have sent the samples to London to determine whether it was highly pathogenic H5N1," he said, and added the results are expected within next three days.
However, it is worth mentioning that the federal health minister had announced some two days back that samples were sent to London and results are awaited in a day or two.
Nasir Khan, responding to a question, said that authorities have also conducted scanning of 31 workers in two poultry farms in Charsadda and Abbottabad and none of them have any symptoms of bird flu.
He went on saying that ministries of health and food and agriculture have formed special teams to check poultry stock nation-wide to counter potential avian influenza strain.
Replying to a question, Nasir Khan said the sufficient stock of anti-bird flu doses, Tamiflu, was lying with the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
When asked about the non-availability of doses in hospitals, the health minister said the medicines were very costly and therefore, the stock would be released to government hospitals only, when needed.
He told reporters that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also promised of a steady supply of drugs to combat bird flu outbreak.
"The deadly avian influenza has struck more than 36 countries all over the world and unfortunately, we have also become one of its victims. Like other countries, we have also adopted the policy to control it at source," he said.