No human bird flu case so far, says govt

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| "A woman in Jamner and a Jalgaon doctor were found suffering from fever during surveillance by medical teams today," Animal Husbandry Commissioner Bijay Kumar said. |
| The two have been admitted to hospital and were under observation. They were being administered medication, he said. Health officials also found a boy with fever in Jalgaon district and put him under observation Friday evening, District Collector Vijay Singhal said. |
| The boy is reported to have handled poultry. |
| The district collector said the boy was thoroughly examined by a team of specialists from National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, yesterday. |
| Singhal said while the boy did not come under 'suspected' category, but as a precautionary measure, he had been kept under observation in the isolation ward and was also given Tamiflu, the most potent drug against avian influenza. |
| "The outbreak in backyard poultry here was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, but it has not infected humans so far," Singhal said. |
| Meanwhile, the administration has completed culling nearly 80,000 chicken in four villages declared infected by the avian influenza. |
| "The culling is over. Till yesterday, 83,259 birds were killed," the animal husbandry commissioner said. |
First Published: Mar 20 2006 | 12:00 AM IST