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Another Suspect H5N1 Bird Flu Patient Dies in India
Recombinomics Commentary
February 22, 2006
DOCTORS at Mumbai's J J Hospital have sent blood samples of a 12-year-old boy, who died on Wednesday night, to Pune's National Institute of Virology (NIV) for a bird-flu virus test.
Bhushan Sanjay Ahire, who was from a village in Nashik district, was admitted to the hospital at 10 pm on Wednesday with ''a query of bird flu'', according to doctors. He was kept in an isolation ward and died at 11.30 pm.
Doctors there ''suspected a 50 per cent chance of bird flu'' after initially treating him for typhoid and pneumonia and not getting satisfactory results.
''He was brought in (at J J Hospital) with symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress,'' said Khan. ''But I do not feel there was much need for the blood sample to be sent to Pune. Nashik is far from Navapur.
the Ahires are farmers, who own 12 acres of land and grow pomegranates and vegetables, which they sell in Surat. And on the way back they regularly stop at Navapur to buy manure made from chicken droppings.
The above comments describe yet another bird flu death that is being denied. As the number of deaths increase, the credibility of denials decrease. This initial test results on other suspect cases are already confusing. Some media reports indicate influenza genes have been detected, but are not H5N1. These descriptions would be somewhat clearer if the sero-type was given.
The H5N1 outbreak is serious for both poultry and patients, and the lack of transparency remains a major cause for concern.
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