H5N1 Confirmed in Northern Pakistan
Recombinomics Commentary 13:47
February 16, 2008
Pakistani authorities have detected an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in chickens in a part of the northwest where the country recently had its first human death from the virus, a government official said on Saturday.
The new outbreak was found in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the official said.
"Samples from a poultry farm sent to us from Abbottabad have tested positive for the virus," Food and Agriculture Ministry official Rafiq-ul-Usmani said,
The above comments describe the confirmation of H5N1 in Abbottabbad, the same location as the culling operation in late 2007 that led to one of the most sustained human-to-human transmission of H5N1 recorded to date.
The confirmed positive (see satellite map here here here) is close to the suspect case in Peshawar and is addition to the confirmed H5N1 cases near Karachi and excessive poultry deaths in northern Pakistan. This outbreak raises serious questions about the lack of human cases in Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh, as well as the lack of H5N1 reports in Afghanistan or any district in India other than West Bengal.
Sequences from the new isolates as well as transparency on H5N1 in the region would be useful.
Media Links
Recombinomics Presentations
Recombinomics Publications
Recombinomics Paper at Nature Precedings