# 5987
Over the past 72 hours we’ve seen several reports of avian influenza spreading among poultry in Nepal.
On FluTrackers, a thread started by Gert van der Hoek on Monday contains confirmed reports of bird flu at a poultry farm in Nepal’s Bhaktapur district.
Suspicious poultry deaths were reported occurring as early as November 9th, but testing only recently confirmed the H5N1 virus.
Yesterday the Kathmandu Post carried an article that describes a `lax’ response by public health officials to residents in the area complaining of `flu like symptoms’.
Bird flu outbreak
- Govt response: Cursory probe, lax quarantine
KATHMANDU, NOV 30 -
A day after officials confirmed bird flu in Bhaktapur and quarantined the area, many locals in and around Madhyapur Thimi Municipality on Wednesday complained of symptoms similar to that of bird flu.
Sita Rai, a resident near the site of the outbreak, said she has sore throat, fever, cough and muscle ache.
However, two health officials at the site, who stayed for less than 20 minutes in the area, said she is fine and that there is nothing to worry about.
It is not uncommon – particularly during the onset of winter weather – for people in this region to be experiencing ILI (influenza-like-illnesses). So while reports of any ILIs around bird flu outbreaks are always of concern, these illnesses are far more likely to be caused by something other than H5N1.
So far, H5N1 has primarily been a threat to poultry, and we’ve seen very few clusters of human infection.
The concern, of course, is that could change.
Today, an AFP report appearing in the Straits Times indicates that – for the first time – bird flu has been detected in poultry in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu.
Poultry cull follows Kathmandu bird flu outbreak
Published on Dec 1, 2011
Nepal first reported the bird flu virus in January of 2009 (see Nepal: Concerns Rise Over More Poultry Deaths). After a couple of months the outbreaks were declared over, but the virus returned again over the winter of 2010 (see Nepal: H5N1 In Poultry & Nepal: Problems Containing Bird Flu).
The last OIE report I can find was filed in February of 2010; Final report 12669.
Located as it is between two nations with a history of outbreaks of H5N1 (India and China), and separated by but a few kilometers from Bangladesh – another bird flu hotspot – it isn’t surprising that Nepal finds itself faced with fresh outbreaks of the virus each winter.
Complicating matters, officials must send off samples to labs outside of the country in order to confirm the presence of H5N1, which has led to delays in implementing control methods.
In 2009 and 2010 outbreaks in Nepal were not reported until well into January, so today’s reports are coming unusually early in their winter season.
For now, this appears to be just affecting poultry, but as always, the newshounds on the flu forums will keep a close eye on the situation.
