Suspect H5N1 Case in Balurghat South Dinajpur India
Recombinomics Commentary 14:21
January 26, 2008
Amid the bird flu scare in West Bengal, the state health department has kept a youth under observation in Balurghat, South Dinajpur, who has developed symptoms of avian flu after handling sick birds recently. The youth’s clinical samples have been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Disease, New Delhi and National Institute of Virology, Pune for confirmation tests.
This is significant because South Dinajpur is one of the two districts where bird flu cases were confirmed in the state, with Birbhum on 15 January.
This is the first case in the state when the health authorities sent a clinical sample of a human, suspecting he could have fallen victim to the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of virus. So far, no human case of avian flu has been reported in India. Health officials said the 30-year-old youth was admitted to Balurghat Hospital with high fever and respiratory distress. As the youth hails from the area where the presence of H5N1 virus was confirmed, health officials put him under observation.
The above comments describe another suspect H5N1 case. The patient handled infected birds and has symptoms. However, India’s track record of detecting H5N1 in patients raises questions about these tests.
Prior to the H5N1 outbreaks in 2006, India had never reported H5N1. However, serum samples collected in 2002 from poultry workers had H5 antibodies. Similarly, highly suspect cases linked to the 2006 outbreak, including fatal cases, tested negative.
Negative data has also been found for wild birds. Although wild birds from H5N1 positive areas in China, Siberia, and Mongolia winter in India, India has never reported H5N1 in dead or live wild birds.
Recently a dead teal collected a few miles from H5N1 positive dead poultry was said to have died of pneumonia, but H5N1 test results were not indicated. Similary, video of the initial reported poultry death in Birbham included large numbers of dead crows, but they also have not been reported to be H5N1 positive. Bangladesh also reported dead crows in the vicinity of H5N1 confirmed poultry, and Bangladesh reported H5N1 positive crows.
In addition, hundreds of goats in the same Birbhum and Murshidabad, which have cullers with bird flu symptoms, have died with bird flu symptoms, but no testing of the goats has been announced.
Thus, the negative test results from India increase pandemic concerns.
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