# 1493
From the IRIN news organization (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) comes this report on the spread of bird flu in Bangladesh.
It would be an understatement to say things aren't going well in their containment efforts.
BANGLADESH: Bird flu “spreading fast”, says expert
DHAKA, 18 January 2008 (IRIN) - A fresh outbreak of bird flu this week in Bangladesh has renewed fears of a possible spread: Seventy-two farms in 23 of Bangladesh's 64 districts have reportedly been infected with the deadly virus so far.
“The situation is really bad. It is getting out of control. People are handling, selling and eating avian influenza infected chicken,” said Habibibur Rahman of the Bangladesh Agricultural University.
“The disease is spreading fast in terms of numbers and areas. Two new divisions, Barisal and Sylhet, out of the country’s six divisions, have been freshly affected this week," he said.
But Rahman, a national expert on bird flu, insists that the pandemic can be controlled provided backyard farmers improve their health and hygiene behaviour - including the disposal of poultry faeces.
“Dead birds are culled and buried. But their faeces, loaded with the H5N1 virus, are not disposed of properly. If this continues, the outbreaks will also continue,” the expert warned, noting: "It is the backyard farms that pose a real danger - more than the commercial ones."
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New areas affected
New areas like the southern and eastern districts of the country have reported bird flu in commercial and backyard poultry farms, raising concern amongst government officials, farmers, scientists and the general public over containing the pandemic.
Over 21,000 fowls were culled in coastal Barguna District on 17 January, and another 3,000 in Jessore District, southwestern Bangladesh, after detection of the virus.
Fowls have been culled in Barguna since 16 January, when over 400 chickens at a poultry farm in the village of Dhalua, Sadar sub-district, reportedly died after detection of the deadly H5N1 virus.
