Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to depute a high-level team to Kerala to take stock of Avian Influenza outbreak in the state. The team will investigate the outbreak in detail and submit report with recommendations.
The seven member Central team to Kerala comprises of experts drawn from the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, National Centre for Disease Control, National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai and All India Institute of Medical Sciences – all based out of the national capital. The team is headed by Dr. Rajesh Kedamani, Sr RD, Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare, Bangalore.
The team will also assist the State Health Departments in terms of public health measures, management guidelines and protocols to manage the increasing cases of Avian Influenza being reported by the State.
The current situation has led to culling of nearly 20,500 poultry birds in Alappuzha district of Kerala. The death of more than 1200 ducks was reported at Haripad in the Kuttanad region over the last five days.
The poultry birds died at Vazhuthanam Padinjare and Vazhuthanam Vadakke.
Samples of the dead birds were collected by Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) and was sent to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal for investigation.
Avian influenza or bird flu is referred to the disease caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses.
This virus generally rapidly spread among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species.
Avian influenza, a viral infection caused deaths of thousands of birds across the country generally raises concern especially in Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan other than Kerala.
Health experts states that although the virus in the avian flu normally fails to infect people, however there have been rare instances where it has also effected human.