Central team to monitor Chandigarh bird flu situation

Health Minister J.P. Nadda Monday dispatched a three-member team to visit and technically assist the Chandigarh administration following reports of a bird-flu case from there, an official statement said.

"Following reports of deaths of wild birds in Chandigarh, the minister for health directed immediate dispatch of a central team of three members to visit and technically assist in the management of avian influenza, and preventing it from affecting humans," the statement from the health ministry said.

"The team has visited the affected areas and initiated a micro plan to prevent human cases of avian influenza which includes active house-to-house surveillance to detect persons who may have got exposed to the infected birds," it added.

"No human case of avian influenza has been reported in the current outbreak and the situation is being monitored," it said further.

However, three people in the union territory have been hospitalized after they reportedly showed symptoms of the disease and have been kept under observation in isolated wards.

Meanwhile, authorities in Chandigarh have started culling all birds in and around the Sukhna lake where a goose died due to H5N1 virus. The area has been cordoned off by police and the forest department.

Over 30 geese at the lake died under mysterious circumstances in recent days. The lake has nearly 250 ducks and geese.