More Detail on Patients in Isolation in Karachi
Recombinomics Commentary 06:59
February 2, 2008
the persons, named Mohammad Aslam, Ghulam Mustafa and Allah Dino, had been admitted to the isolation ward of the CHK for observation purposes.
“As per initial examinations, none of the three had shown any symptoms of bird flu infection, but they would be watched for four to five days to avert any danger to them,” he said.
One of the workers, Mohammad Aslam, said he had been working at the farm for about three months and had complaints of pain without flu.
The owner of Uni poultry farm told Dawn in the evening that his premises had been sealed by the government officials after completing the culling operation. He said he had to suffer a loss of about 12,000 birds that existed in two flocks due to the bird flu virus.
The above comments provide more detail on the three patients in isolation. However, it is unclear why they were selected for isolation and observation. The size of the farm indicates more than three people would have been exposed to the dead or dying birds, suggesting that the workers have some symptoms that fall short of “any symptoms of bird flu”, but it remains unclear as to what symptoms they do have, other than pain without flu for one of the patients.
Since the culling was done on Friday, there may not have been time for symptoms to appear, especially if the patients were also treated with Tamiflu. Media reports also describe examinations of fifty other farm workers in the region, as well as the preparation of additional isolation rooms. Results of tests on dead birds at a second farm are expected today. Media reports describe additional excessive poultry deaths, and human infections late last year in northern Pakistan increase concerns of human infections linked to the current outbreak (see satellite map here and here).
More detail on why these three workers were selected for isolation and observation would be useful.
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