H5N1strain of bird flu infects more than half of Bangladesh districts

Bangladeshi officials from the livestock department confirmed Sunday that the extremely infectious H5N1 bird flu virus has spread to three more districts of Bangladesh. More than half of Bangladesh's 64 districts and more than 97 farms have come under the dark wings of bird flu since it was first detected last year.

The virus was first detected at a state-owned poultry farm near the capital in March and has since spread mainly to northern districts, forcing authorities to cull more than 350,000 birds.

The two latest outbreaks took place in southern Bagerhat and western Kushtia districts, taking the number of affected districts to 36. Before this, the Ministry of Health confirmed the outbreak in Gopalganj and Sylhet.

The virus has re-emerged in several other districts probably due to ignorance among millions of farmers in the poor nation.

In Chittagong, the country's second biggest city, officials stepped up surveillance after some dead crows were found infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus strain.

According to Sydur Rahman, a local livestock official, more than 27,000 chickens and ducks were killed and more than 60,000 eggs were destroyed on Thursday and Friday in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

Officials say Bangladesh’s poultry industry encompasses around 150,000 poultry farms, with an annual turnover of $750 million. The poultry industry in Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to Avian Influenza virus because of its geographical location and dependence on chicken imports. Nearly four million people in the country are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming.

In spite of Bangladeshi government’s extreme efforts to check the spread of bird flu infection, lack of awareness and extreme poverty among the farming and domestic poultry-owning community is making the efforts immensely difficult to give any results.

More than two lakhs volunteers are going door-to-door telling householders to report sick/dead poultry and wild birds.

"More than 200,000 volunteers are visiting rural households and educating people to report dead or sick birds, safe disposal of poultry waste and other safe health practices," said Mushtaque Ahmed, senior scientific officer at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.

Last week, the government urged the Department of Livestock to take more precautions in order to prevent the disease from spreading.

H5N1, also known as A(H5N1), is a subtype of the Influenza A virus that is capable of causing illness in many animal species, including humans, while a bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1", is the causative agent of H5N1 flu, commonly known as "avian influenza" or simply "bird flu", and is endemic in many bird populations, especially in Southeast Asia.

The H5N1 virus though remains primarily a virus of birds, but experts fright that once it starts transmitting from person to person, it would sweep the world, leaving millions more to die and triggering a devastating human pandemic.

Since the virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003, the deadly H5N1 strain has infected more than 340 people and killed over 220 of them, according to data from the Geneva– based World Health Organization.