# 1342
Every once in awhile a strange story makes the news wires, and it is difficult to know what to make of it. Often the sources are vague, the details are fuzzy, and the claims are remarkable.
Yesterday, The Post, in Pakistan carried the following article.
Two ‘bird flu’ deaths sound alarm bells ringing
Muhammad Kabir
ISLAMABAD: Three suspected cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu virus have been detected in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), sources told The Post on Monday.
Of these three cases, two people died and the Ministry of Health has collected samples to determine the cause of their deaths.
Sources said about three weeks ago the Ministry of Health obtained blood samples of people suspected of being infected with bird flu virus, but their results have yet to be announced.
Ministry officials said on October 21, 2007, bird flu virus H5-N1 was confirmed at Ijaz Shah Poultry Farm in Abbotabad and a veterinarian, Dr Ishtiaq Durrani, from the NWFP Livestock Department was tasked with culling as many as 3,000 hens in Abbotabad from October 21 to 23.
As many as 200 people have died of bird flu virus all over the world but no case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu virus has been confirmed so far.
Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council Secretary and Registrar Dr Alamdar Hussain Malik said the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) were the final authority to confirm the presence of bird flu virus in human beings.
The final report about the presence of bird flu virus in suspected cases detected in NWFP would be released by the ministry, which has obtained their samples, he added.
He said about 25, 000 poultry farms in the country, out of which 90 percent were working without boundary walls and precautionary measures.
He said the government should register all these poultry farms and start an awareness campaign about bio-safety.
Obviously, if this is true, this is an important story.
Unfortunately, the details of this story are attributed to unnamed (interestingly, plural) `sources' , and that could mean anything from highly placed government officials on down to a street rumor.
The declaration that these cases represent `suspected human-to-human transmission of bird flu virus' in the opening paragraph, without any supporting facts, is so cavalier as to make the entire article suspect.
Given the recent political turmoil in Pakistan I suppose such a story could fly under the radar for several weeks, and only now be coming to light. So this story bears watching.
Pending some sort of follow up reporting, though, I'm treating this one as a highly suspect unverified rumor.
If there is anything to it, I'm sure we'll hear more.
