# 1639
After 9 days of hospitalization, three poultry workers from the bird flu affected farm in Gadap have been sent home, cleared of having the H5N1 virus.
If 9 days seems like an inordinately long time to get a negative result, well . . . you are right.
These 3 `suspect cases' were hospitalized on Feb 1st, and almost certainly started on antiviral drugs (Tamiflu) at that time.
According to this article, samples taken on Feb 4th tested negative for the H5N1 virus.
This seems just a bit `irregular' to me. Assuming the reporter got his facts straight, then crucial data appears to be missing. Testing samples taken 4 days after antiviral therapy has begun increases the chances of returning inaccurate test results.
This raises a number of questions:
- Were any samples taken at the time of hospitalization (Feb 1st) or prior to administration of Tamiflu?
- If so, what were the results of these tests? Why weren't they released?
- If no samples were taken until Feb 4th, why the delay?
- Why did it take 5 days after the sample was taken to get the results?
While these 3 workers may indeed have been free of the virus, the timeline provided raises enough questions that I hope the WHO (World Health Organization) is given the opportunity to do some follow up antibody testing on these subjects over the next month or so.
KARACHI: Three workers cleared of bird flu
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Feb 9: The administration of the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) on Saturday released three workers belonging to a Gadap poultry farm as the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, found no traces of bird flu in samples taken from them on Feb 4.
Dr Khalid Ibrahim, official in charge of the CHK’s isolation ward, told Dawn on Saturday that samples of workers from the avian influenza-infected farm, who were admitted to the hospital on Feb 1, have been tested negative for bird flu.
He said that the NIH Islamabad had issued the final report for the admitted poultry workers, clearing them of any viral infection, including H5N1, and as such the workers, named Mohammad Aslam, Allah Dino and Ghulam Murtaza, were sent home around 1.30pm on Saturday.
Following the large-scale deaths of birds at the farm (Uni poultry farm), located along the Super Highway near the Toll Plaza, poultry and health officials had suspected an outbreak of avian influenza (AI) virus at the farm. A surveillance team of the Sindh livestock department had collected samples from the suspected birds on Jan 28 for confirmation of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
The National Reference Laboratory on poultry diseases, Islamabad, on Feb 1 informed the director poultry of the Sindh government that the Newcastle disease virus and bird flu virus of H5N1 strain had been found in the samples of birds in the farm, following which the authorities concerned culled hundreds of the remaining birds and sealed the farm for any further activity for some months, while the workers who handled the birds before and after the culling were sent to the CHK’s isolation ward on the same day.
Later, a nearby farm maintained by the Rangers was also declared affected with the deadly H5N1 virus. However, nine of the personnel handling the birds at the Rangers’ farm could not be shifted to any hospital for medical tests or observation but were advised not to move in public and remain available to a medical team of the city district government for the purposes of relevant examinations.
The District Officer (Poultry), Asadullah Shah Bukhari, said that he had asked the workers released from the CHK not to go to their infected and sealed farm and to report to their respective poultry farm owners.
