India Fully Geared to Combat the Outbreak of Bird Flu

There have been media reports that the first detection of Bird Flu in India has been confirmed in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, a poultry belt lying along the Maharashtra – Gujarat border in Western India.  The Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal has confirmed that seven of the 12 samples taken from dead chickens have tested positive for Bird – Flu virus.  

The disease is restricted to a small area in Nawapur in Nandurbar district and has not spread to other regions.  There are no confirmed reports of the disease having spread to other animals and human beings as well. 

The Maharashtra Government has sealed Nawapur taluka (the affected area) and has ordered culling of chicken stock in poultry farms within a 3 km. radius.  Beyond the affected area, an additional zone of 10 km area is being sanitized, where all birds are being vaccinated.  Besides, transportation and sale of poultry in the affected areas has been completely banned. 

As a precautionary measure, the District Authorities have been instructed to close all slaughter houses in Nawapur and surrounding areas. 

The National Disaster Management Authority of Government of India has swung into action and isclosely monitoring the situation.  A committee comprising the Union Cabinet Secretary and Secretaries concerned of Central Government has also been set up to monitor the developments and maintain a vigil on the situation on day to day basis.

India has enough stocks of Bird Flu Drugs 

On getting reports of the confirmed Bird Flu cases among the birds, consignments of the anti Bird Flue drug (generic version of ‘Tamiflu’) available with the Rapid Response Team of National Institute of Communicable Diseases have been rushed to the affected areas. 

The Centre has gathered details about availability of medicines in Delhi, Mumbai and other places and the Animal Husbandry and Health Departments are taking steps to ensure availability of adequate stock of medicines.  About 10 lakh (1 million) vaccines have been airlifted to the affected area for ready use.  Therefore, there is no cause to worry about on this count. 

The pharmaceutical industry in India is well developed and it can bulk manufacture anti Bird Flu Drugs for meeting any emergency requirement at the shortest possible time. 

A team from the Institute of Virology in Pune has also taken over 80 blood samples of humans for testing.  Although no human case has been found to be clinically positive, every suspected case will be treated with the anti Bird Flu drug as a precautionary measure.

India continues to be an absolutely safe destination since the disease is contained in a very small geographical area, which is not a tourist destination.  It is important to realize that India is bigger than 23 countries of Europe and an isolated incident in a small geographical area has no bearing on tourist destinations of the country. 

All safety and precautionary measures are being taken with the urgency that the situation demands.  The Central and State Government machinery/administration is fully geared to meet all eventualities.

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