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Further Bird Flu Perspectives, News
Entry 20 of 45 | show all | print this entry |
I have been ambivalent about posting another entry on bird flu, since I am so vulnerable to going off on another rant, and that is a distraction from my purpose for being in India, which is to become more inner focused. So I am going to attempt to be thoughtful and balanced in this entry, but I must first acknowledge that is a challenge for me. I am my mother's daughter, and she was a fiery activist who readily burned a swath to right any wrong she saw.
I am seeing ever new dimensions of the expanding epidemic here and the vulnerabilities it poses to the population in Kolkata and West Bengal due to particularities of culture and lifestyle. The epidemic in poultry is confirmed in new districts almost daily. With 2 nearby districts confirmed, one immediately across the river, Kolkata will surely join the list within a few days.
The good news is that the press, individuals, and even the local government, are waking up to the seriousness of the threat.
The bad news is that the government is totally out of its depth in its capacity to even rise to previous levels of the epidemic, much less to address new dimensions of the crisis. The state government here is profoundly corrupt and utterly incompetent about even the most daily aspects of governance. It is in no position to handle a crisis of this magnitude. It is a testament to the tenacity, determination and resilience of Bengalis that anything functions at all here on a normal day.
One grave concern is the government's constant refrain, in the same wording in virtually every article that appears, that there are: "No suspected human cases...." It has the suspicious ring of a statement of commitment or a policy rather than anything remotely credible, given the ongoing human exposure in affected regions (see my previous post, if you haven't already). If that proves to be a correct reading on my part, the truth will inevitably become undeniable, but people will not have been preparing or protecting themselves from multiple avenues of exposure. The death toll from animal-to-human contagion will be incalculably higher and the virus will have all the more opportunities to mutate to human-to-human contagion. (The press to date has universally accepted the government reports at face value rather than questioning them in any meaningful way.)
I said in my previous post that West Bengal is a perfect storm for the virus to mutate to human to human transmission when you take into account the uncontrolled spread of disease, ineffective governmental response, and lifestyles that give other mammals and human beings multiple layers of exposure to affected poultry and their droppings.
Among the lifestyle issues in Kolkata (population 13. 6 million at last census, NOT 5 million as reported in Reuters the other day) and the heavily populated rural districts of West Bengal (80 million) that give particular vulnerability to humans:
·Densely populated, primarily illiterate, impoverished rural and urban population lacking basics of sanitation or education about the disease.
·Livestock in rural areas have frequent contact with poultry. Goats are already dying in unusual numbers with the telltale symptoms of bird flu in one district. Cows, too, are exposed (feeding on grass and ground where affected poultry have run free, left their droppings. Cows are held sacred here. They roam free everywhere, rural and urban, in West Bengal. (Will they cull apparently healthy cows if cows begin to become ill? Not likely.) Critical question: how does a government who has not been able to handle the poultry epidemic with even minimal effectiveness add goat and other animal culling to its response program?
·As in all cities, there are lots of pigeons and crows that congregate around apartment complexes to be fed by bird lovers on their balconies each morning. Lots of people feed them. Every balcony I have seen has lots of bird droppings all over it. Crows and hawks have been reported dying in several districts where the epidemic was later confirmed (see article included below). Unusual crow and owl bird deaths were recently reported in Kolkata
·In Kolkata, everyone, in all socio-economic classes, hangs their washed clothes out to dry on balconies, where birds leave their droppings on both the railings and the clothes (it's too hot in Kolkata for electric dryers). People simply brush, wipe, or rinse off bird droppings and wear the clothes. In a diseased area, this constitutes exposure potential not only the individual but to others with whom s/he comes in contact.
·Hundreds of thousands to millions of people ride the train every day into Kolkata, possibly from already affected districts, to work in domestic households and at other jobs. The main train station is in Howrah, an affected district.
·Almost all cats and dogs in Kolkata and West Bengal are strays. Few are owned. They are everywhere, scavenging. Stray cats are common, my apartment complex included. They hover around the elevators, climb the stairs and whine loudly outside my door for food and attention. (A sick animal would be leaving contaminated saliva from sneezing and coughing, as well as feces in all of those places, which could then be picked up on shoes and brought into residences.) When the disease hits Kolkata's birds, hungry dogs and cats will consume dead birds raw. Cats and dogs have been known to contract the disease, and will become an additional, extensive source of exposure to humans.
·Almost all markets here are crowded and bustling open air markets. Vendor stalls line the roads, very close to the street in many villages, as teeming foot traffic, bicycle, motorcycle, and larger vehicle traffic pass by and a thriving business life takes place all around them. The other night driving through a village, at one vendor's table less than 4 feet from my car window, a slaughtered chicken's bloody remains sat dripping on the table and the ground below it, while the vendor sat casually right next to it and people walked and rode past, exposing all if the bird was contagious. Looking at the map of affected districts (link below), this was an affected district at that time. It is an example of the vulnerabilities at play here due to lifestyle and everyday commercial practices.
·I found one website article yesterday that reported some culling teams are killing poultry, then refusing to bury the carcasses, because they hadn't been given any instructions to bury them! Villagers complained about the dead and rotting carcasses being left on the ground. A health minister responded that culling teams would be instructed to bury the birds they killed! Another culling team left bloody plastic bags filled with dead poultry carcasses in a drain rather than burying or otherwise properly disposing of them.
·One district has yet to receive any culling teams, despite having had the virus confirmed 5 days ago.
·With heavy rain and cold (for West Bengal) weather, culling has slowed or stopped in most districts for the last 3 days and heavy rain is projected for tomorrow. (NOTE of a previous error on my part: Scientists say rain can help prevent spread of the disease, it does not spread the disease exponentially.
·Each day, I see yet another photo of a culling team member in Hazmat gear, being handed a chicken by a totally unprotected poultry worker. Many of them have others who are unprotected visibly nearby as well.
These are only the most obvious avenues to human exposure and infection, and the issues I have found in the media. I am sure that there are lots of others.
For those who are interested, among the more significant findings of my research online yesterday are the following:
Dead Crows Raise H5Nl Worry
Friday, January 18, 2008 - FreeMarketNews.com
Dead birds --- crows and owls --- were found in Kolkata's southern and eastern parts today causing fresh fears as a civic team moved around the metropolis to collect bird carcasses. The above comments on dead wild birds in Calcutta are cause for concern. Large numbers of dead crows were seen in initial video reports of H5N1 in Birbhum and media reports noted that owls and pigeons also died. Dead poultry in adjacent Murshidabad were also associated with dead wild birds, including crows and hawks, which were also linked to outbreaks in South Dinajpur. Similarly, excess poultry deaths have been noted in multiple districts, including South 24 Parganas, which is south of Kolkata Therefore, the reports of dead crows and owls in Kolkata raise concerns that H5N1 has spread along the length of the West Bengal / Bangladesh border. Bangladesh has been reporting daily outbreaks of H5N1 including locations in southern Bangladesh, supporting extensive spread of H5N1 in both countries. -Recombinomics
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=53926
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrs ess=1&id=186925
Boy dies after eating sick chicken
Statesman News Service
PLASSEY (Nadia), Jan. 21: Selim Malick Sheikh (9), a class III student of Mira Sahid Swaran Primary School of Kadamtalapara in Plassey in Kaliganj block of Nadia died on the night of 19 January within 48 hours after consuming sick chickens cooked at home. He died on his way to Beliaghata ID Hospital.
Dr Bhaskar Samanta, superintendent of the Behrampur Sadar Hospital where Selim was admitted for a short time before being referred to Beliaghata ID hospital said: "I cannot say whether he died of bird flu."
Animal husbandry minister Mr Anisur Rahman said he had asked the CMOH, Nadia, to confirm the cause of Selim's death. "If need be, the body will be exhumed," he said. State health minister Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra said: "This is not a case of a human death caused by avian flu. No such case has been reported in the state so far."
The article below is on a different boy than previous article.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080122/jsp/bengal/story_88121 45.jsp
Probe into boy death
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Krishnagar, Jan. 21: A 10-year-old boy who had fever died yesterday in Plassey, Nadia.
The area is not in the bird flu zone and doctors said there was no immediate reason to suspect the disease.
But district health authorities have ordered a probe because Samirul Sheikh's family rears chickens.
On Friday evening, the Class IV student told his parents that he was feeling ill. His condition started deteriorating that night.
"We brought a quack but he couldn't improve his condition. On Saturday morning, I took Samirul to the Kaligunj block hospital," said the boy's father, Manirul, a resident of PWD More, 150km from Calcutta.
Block medical officer Manas Bhattacharjee said Samirul had 104-degree Fahrenheit fever and stomach pain. His blood sugar level had shot up to 260, 120 above normal.
The following link has an excellent map showing 9 of the 11 districts of West Bengal that are currently affected by the epidemic among poultry.
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/mapinnews/bird-flu-in-west-b engal.html
The Below is a posting from an RN on a website www.PlanforPandemic.com
...Stop testing for H5N1 as soon as someone walks in the door with symptoms. Consider this issue the way you consider running a pregnancy test on a woman whose period just ended last week, had sex 3 days ago, woke up the next morning with enlarged breasts (yes, it happens) and has felt "different" ever since. It's very possible that she's pregnant, but very unlikely to show up as a positive test.
Instead of doing the tests, knowing that the likelihood is that they will be negative even if the person has H5N1, just treat the patient as if he has the disease. Treat to the symptoms, especially if you're talking about India, Indonesia, etc. Wait a week or so to run the first test.
Why am I saying this? Because while WHO ... know(s) full well that the vast majority of H5N1 tests are negative the first time, even when the patient is showing clear symptoms, the vast majority of practitioners "on the ground" in India, etc., don't know that. They assume when they read "negative" that the person doesn't have AI. The tests are expensive, time-consuming, and pointless if they are false negatives. The resulting actions by practitioners believing these falsely negative tests can be downright dangerous. Wait until the blood levels have the opportunity to rise, and keep treating the patient. If it walks like a sick duck, quacks like a sick duck, and has just been playing with its H5N1 sick duck friends, assume it's a sick duck, and go on with the correct therapy. AnnieRN
One excellent source of current news articles and recent news releases is www.news.google.co.in You need to scroll down the page to HEALTH and then click on the link to show all the current articles on bird flu outbreak In India. Here is how the link shows up on my web address line: http://news.google.co.in/nwshp?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozi lla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wn
Latest Comments (1)
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Wow, Today was my first day on TravelPod (reply)
Jan 26, 2008 23:46 EST by joeneubarth
I read your one post that I saw (#19) and did not see the others until I came back to the board this afternoon. I clicked on the 'See All Posts' button and now realize that you are a very well educated individual about Bird Flu. In my sixty years of life I have caught all of the various Bird Flu's that turned into human influenza. H1N1, H2N2 and H3N2. He nearly killed me as a six year old as it... show all
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