Health officials put on alert over human avian influenza in AP
The Andhra Pradesh government has geared up itself to deal with cases of human avian influenza by alerting the district health authorities to keep antiviral drugs available in all health facilities.
Vijayawada:The Andhra Pradesh government has geared up itself to deal with cases of human avian influenza by alerting the district health authorities to keep antiviral drugs available in all health facilities. This follows the recent death of a two-year-old girl due to H5N1.
As the girl hailed from Balaiah Nagar of Narasaraopeta in Palnadu district, the health authorities sent rapid response teams from the Guntur government hospital and eight teams of health personnel to take up a fever survey in and around the locality. They found no abnormal cases. The health authorities would continue the surveillance for the next two weeks and carry out tests on suspected cases.
As per ICMR, the risk of spread of human avian influenza in the locality is low as more than twice the incubation period was over from the time of the death of the child.
The health department directed all the district medical and health officers to be on alert to act as per standard protocol in case of finding cases with severe influenza symptoms.
Antiviral drugs are to be made available in all the health facilities and 10 bedded isolation wards are arranged at AMC in Visakhapatnam, SMC in Vijayawada and KMC in Kurnool. Individuals experiencing flu symptoms are advised to seek medical help.
The DMHOs are directed to be in touch with the animal husbandry department to get any information on cases of bird flu. In case of any suspected case in poultry, the fever survey would be held up to a one-km radius of the affected area.
People have been advised to ensure proper cooking of poultry products before consumption. They should keep themselves away from the infected birds and poultry and stay away from the dead and sick birds.
The girl had been admitted to AIIMS in Mangalagiri with symptoms of fever and breathlessness on March 4 and she died on March 16 while on treatment. Her throat swab was tested on March 7 at the VRDL lab and it was found positive to avian influenza. Another sample was sent to NIV, Pune, which confirmed the sample to be positive for H5N1. Accordingly, the ICMR alerted the AP government on March 31.
