Officials in Northeastern Bangladesh are reporting that a new outbreak of bird flu has killed 500 birds in the Moulavibazar district. Salehuddin Khan, the Bangladesh director of livestock stated, “After the confirmation of bird flu, authorities culled nearly 800 chickens, ducks and birds in a one-kilometer area around the affected farm.”
Since the first phase of the outbreak occurred in March of last year, authorities have had to cull more than 300,000 birds. The deadly H5N1 virus has now spread to 71 farms located in over 22 districts.
Poultry farms are a booming business in Bangladesh and account for $750 million in income every year. Authorities are concerned that the virus may jump to humans, since nearly 4 million Bangladeshi’s work with poultry. So far, there have been no reports of human cases.
Indonesia is still struggling to deal with their own outbreak of bird flu. 117 people have been hospitalized with the virus and 94 people have died. Nearby China reported that a man who was hospitalized for bird flu reportedly contracted it from his son who died of the disease in November.
While world health authorities continue to worry about a virus mutation that could spark a global academic, this has thankfully not yet occurred. However, mutation still remains a concern for many health workers.
Bernard Vallat, the president of the OIE, a world health animal body stated, “We notice that the virus is now extremely stable but there is no basis to say that H5N1 will not mutate. Bird flu will always remain a risk, be it H5N1 or another.”
In addition to the Bangladeshi outbreak, there have been reports of bird flu hitting swans in England. Vallat acknowledged that his agency still receives several reports of bird flu outbreaks, even though the virus is considered stable.
The most cause for concern are reservoirs of the virus. Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria are still strong centers for the virus and the possibility remains that if it continues unchecked, the virus could mutate in the future. Vallat cited the spread of the West Nile virus to the US, which killed hundreds of people, as proof that more needs to be done to contain these viruses.
“Diseases can now spread faster across the world than before,” Vallat said, noting that he felt the initial outbreak of bird flu was “badly handled.” He continued, “We lost two years. We could have stopped it in Vietnam. Now we are far better prepared than we were. It will certainly be useful, I’m afraid.” Vallat is hopeful that more countries are now prepared to handle the virus, and that the risks of panic are now much lower than they were when the virus originally appeared.
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Yes, Bangladesh is trying to recover it. To overcome this problem need hard work, which Bangladesh is doing.