# 1566
Despite governmental assurances earlier today that the outbreaks in West Bengal were nearly contained, new outbreaks are still being reported.
This from The Times Of India.
Bird flu spreads to urban areas
30 Jan 2008, 0215 hrs IST,
KOLKATA: State officials may be patting their backs for completing culling in bird flu affected districts but the dreaded H5N1 virus has struck back by hitting urban areas.
Bird flu was confirmed in new sites on Tuesday evening — Kalyani municipality and Kanchrapara gram panchayat in Nadia, a village in Birbhum's Suri block-I and Howrah's Panchla and Sankrail. Both districts had announced that culling was nearly complete and the new outbreak has come as a shock.
In Kolkata, the health department had a harrowing time after a member of the culling team in Budge Budge, South 24-Parganas, was admitted to MR Bangur hospital with suspected bird flu. Blood samples of Dipankar Dey were sent for tests to three labs. "All came back negative. He is suffering from an infection of the upper respiratory tract," said Sanchita Bakshi, director health services.
Culling has been ordered in Baduria, North 24-Parganas, after half the stock of poultry died at a farm. The government decided not to wait for the test reports from Bhopal, said animal resources development minister Anisur Rahman. He refuted corruption charges pressed against some culling officials but admitted that the state had lodged a police complaint against staff who left midway through the culling operation in Birbhum without informing their superiors.
In Midnapore town, there was panic after seven goats dropped dead. The owner claimed he had buried the animals but couldn't show the burial place raising fear that the infected meat was sold.
In Nadia, samples sent from Harijanpara, a densely-populated area in Kalyani town, tested positive. "We were nearly through with the culling operation but the virus has spread to Kalyani. We will take similar action there. Culling will be carried out in parts of Chakda block as well," said Nadia DM Omkar Singh Meena.
The bird flu situation came up for discussion at the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday where chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern about the source of the virus that affected 13 districts of the state.
Birbhum DM T K Som confirmed that bird flu had been confirmed in Suri's Alumda village. "This area is within five km of Suri town, so we have decided to cull chickens in the municipality area also. The operation will start on Wednesday," Som said. Fresh samples have been sent from Malda's Kaliachak-III block.
Home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the US Consulate had offered help to tackle the outbreak. "The decision rests with the Centre. A high alert has been issued in the areas along the India-Bangladesh border," Ray said.
