2324 Fever Cases in Birbhum West Bengal Cause Concern
Recombinomics Commentary 02:11
January 23, 2008
About 2,324 cases of people suffering from fever have been reported from the Birbhum district — Ground Zero of the bird flu outbreak in the state — in the last five days.
“The West Bengal Government is failing to understand the gravity of the situation,” said Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare P Lakshmi, during a visit to Birbhum on Tuesday.
The above comments on “fever” cases are cause for concern. If these patients have fevers, then there is an etiological agent associated with the fever. “Fever” is not a diagnosis.
The negative testing means little, since India has never reported a human H5N1 case, including cases from earlier outbreaks which included highly suspect patients in 2006
H5N1 need not produce lower respiratory infections. In Egypt last year, most of the patients in the spring were mild cases that did not involve lower respiratory infections, even though the infectious agent was the Qinghai strain of H5N1.
More information on the cause of the viral fever in Birbhum would be useful.
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