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# 6121
Located as it is between two nations with a long 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 dealing bird flu outbreaks on occasion.
Nepal first confirmed the H5N1 virus in their nation in January of 2009 (see Nepal: Concerns Rise Over More Poultry Deaths).
In early December of last year the OIE was notified of a small outbreak of H5N1 near Kathmandu (see Bird Flu Reports From Nepal). Prior to that outbreak, the last OIE report I can find was filed in February of 2010; Final report 12669.
The media has complained in the past that officials have been slow in dealing bird flu, such as in this report which appeared in the Kathmandu Post last November describing a `cursory probe’ and `lax response’ by public health officials during the most recent outbreak.
One complication for local officials is they 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.
Today, after several days of reports of suspicious poultry deaths in Nepal, we get media confirmation that the H5N1 virus has been detected among poultry in two provinces; Sumari and Ilam.
Two reports from Nepalnews.com:
Lab tests confirm outbreak of bird flu in Sunsari
Sunday, 05 February 2012 13:27 Read this : 105 times
The government authorities Sunday confirmed outbreak of bird flu in Sunsari district where around 5,000 chickens had died earlier this week.
Sunday, 05 February 2012 18:28 Read this : 40 times
On the same day bird flu outbreak was confirmed in Sunsari district, local authorities in Ilam Sunday said the the similar case was detected in Ilam district also.
Nepal is finding - as have nations like Vietnam, India, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh before it - that once the H5N1 virus establishes itself in an area, it can be very difficult to eradicate it completely.
For now, the H5N1 virus remains poorly adapted to human physiology, and while rare human infections have been reported, the virus has not figured out how to transmit efficiently among humans.
Recent laboratory experiments have shown, however, that there is no biological barrier to the virus someday achieving that ability.
And so we watch outbreaks such as these with considerable interest.
