# 1022
The idea was simple. Health officials would check all households in and around the bird flu outbreak in Manipur for people with signs of avian flu. A hospital ward was even set up to receive potential patients.
Unfortunately, it's turning out to be a little more complicated than that, as this article explains.
Viral fever galore in marked 'radius'
Source: The Sangai ExpressImphal, July 28: Though the health officials have not come across any symptoms of the contagious Avian Influenza on the people settling within 5 kilometre radius of Chingmeirong area from where the first report of outbreak of dreaded disease was confirmed, it is said the health officials have detected during the course of ongoing health surveillance that not many households have been left which are not affected by viral fever.
Along with the culling exercise of domesticated fowls being carried out since July 26 under the overall supervision of the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department, personnel of the State Health Services have been visiting each and every household in the affected area to find out if any of the residents have been affected by Avian Influenza or not.
In all 20 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) comprising of three personnel of the Health Department have been visiting the households in the affected area and they have come across instances of as many as three members of a family suffering from viral fever.
The health officials have been closely monitoring the health condition of the family members at Chingmeirong from where mass death of hen had been first reported even as the movement of the staff of the Central Poultry Farm from where the chickens have been reportedly procured restricted beyond the complex of the said farm.
However, some of the local residents have complained that contrary to the announcement that all the households located within 5 km radius of the affected area would be covered in the health surveillance, the health team visited only a few houses located along the main road of the locality.
In view of the fact that most of the households in Manipur are engaged in rearing domestic fowls, the residents of the affected area have drawn the attention of the authorities concerned for conducting the health surveillance judiciously.
On the other hand, with reservation of a separate 12-bedded unit at RIMS Hospital to meet the exigency of possible Bird flu infection on human, director of the Health Institute Prof Fimate has informed all the necessary measures have been taken up to face the eventualities.
Talking to media-persons at his office this afternoon, Fimate said specially trained doctors, staff, nurses and other medical experts have been detailed for the purpose and if necessary more units would be opened.
It may be noted here that JN Hospital at Porompat and Shija Hospital at Langol have also already reserved separate isolation wards for Bird flu patients.
Fimate further informed that along with setting up of the special unit to deal with Bird flu cases, RIMS authorities have also approached the State Government for providing the required masks, gloves, personnel protection equipments, medicines and artificial ventilators.
Although so far no cases of Bird flu have admitted to RIMS so far, monitoring of the related symptoms is being carried out, the Director added.
This has been a bad year for viral fever in India. The exact cause hasn't been announced, although some of the victims have tested positive for Chikungunya, malaria, and Dengue. Tens of thousands of cases have been reported.
With nearly every household reporting fevers, and backyard poultry being ubiquitous in this region, these health teams will have a challenge differentiating between common viral fevers and avian flu. Patients exhibiting respiratory symptoms, I would expect, will get a closer look.
From this vantage point, it is difficult to tell how well India's response to this outbreak is going. The testing and confirmation was hampered by delays and took more than a week. The culling appears to be going slow, and bogging down. This article suggests that health teams may not be visiting all of the homes. And yesterday we got the strange story of one of the cullers apparently committing suicide.
Conditions there are obviously difficult.
Heavy rains have affected the area. Residents are not always cooperating with officials. Some farmers are reportedly trying to smuggle their flocks out of the culling zone. And authorities say it will take at least another week to finish the culling.
