Commentary
Sixty
URI Patients In Barpeta India Raise H5N1
Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary
22:44
December 11, 2008
So far, 60 cases of fever with URI have been detected in the 0-3 km radius area.
The above comments describe excessive upper respiratory infections with fever in the Barpeta district (see satellite map). Assam is setting up monitoring patients in the 0-3 km radius and 3-10 km radius around various epicenters of H5N1 infection. The update gives the number of people residing in the area, as well as how many have been surveyed.
The Barpeta district has 33,934 people, but only 6,032 were surveyed and 60 patients with symptoms were identified. In contrast, similar numbers for the target population were given for Nalbari (7,761/34,627), but only 1 patient with symptoms was identified. The smaller Azara block in the Kamrup district had 7,222 surveyed, and only 2 patients had symptoms.
Thus, the frequency of patients with symptoms is 30-60 fold higher in Barpeta than Azara or Nalbari, respectively.
These types of numbers are raising concerns that then region is not equipped to handle these patients, especially since less than 1/5 of the at risk population in Barpeta has been surveyed and Barpeta was one of the earliest outbreaks.
These numbers of symptomatic patients are cause for concern.
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