Bangladesh: Bird Flu Ruled Out, Deaths Still A Mystery
# 459
As I reported yesterday, medical authorities were checking to see if several mysterious deaths in Bangladesh might be related to the H5N1 virus. Today, we are informed they are not.
According to this report, the cause is still unknown.
Bangladesh mystery deaths not caused by bird flu
DHAKA (AFP) - A probe into the unexplained death of three people in northwestern Bangladesh has ruled out bird flu as the cause, an official has said, although the deaths remain a mystery.
Bird Flu experts had been drafted in as part of a five-member team sent to investigate the deaths in the village of Beloya.
"The report of our medical team indicates that there is no bird flu virus found in Thakurgaon district where three people died and two others are in hospital with serious illness", said Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
"No poultry is affected there and the virus has not spread. It is a different kind of virus to the bird flu virus," he added Friday, declining to give further details.
Bangladesh has so far reported no cases of avian flu.
