Under Reported H5N1 in Bangladesh?
Recombinomics Commentary 13:38
January 22, 2008
"Bird flu is now everywhere. Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms," said leading poultry expert and the treasurer of Bangladesh Poultry Association M M Khan.
"Things are now very serious and public health is under danger. The government is trying to suppress the whole scenario," Khan said, adding that farmers were also holding back from reporting cases.
The comments came after the government reported a series of outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu last week in several southern and northern districts of the country.
"The situation is far worse than before. There were huge outbreaks in the past weeks and the disease is now more widespread than before," an expert at an international agency said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The above comments suggest that the dramatic spread of H5N1 in West Bengal has been accompanied by spread in Bangladesh also. Last week several outbreaks were reported, but reported H5N1 in West Bengal has been much higher (see satellite map), even though much of the recent spread has not been confirmed because of limited testing.
Similarly, earlier reports of H5N1 in cullers in India have been denied, with comments suggesting that the patients tested did not have the reported pneumonia and did not have clinical criteria for bird flu.
In West Bengal, projected culling has been increased to 2,000,000, but the lag in testing suggests the numbers will continue to rise.
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