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- By Parinda News Bureau, February 25, 2006, 11:59 IST
Mumbai: Though another batch of over 100 suspected cases are still being investigated, with a clear chit to the earlier batch of 95 suspected cases of bird flu, the panic reaction among the people subsiding. The PR machinery of the powerful poultry lobby has swung in action issuing reassurances. The state government too says that all three relatives of Ganesh Sonar, 27, who had died in a Surat hospital on February 17, were discharged from the isolation ward of the civil hospital in the flu-hit town.
State health director Dr P P Doke told newspersons that now 11 people are under observation in the quarantined ward of the hospital. A week after the death of Ganesh, his relatives, including his mother, did not show any symptoms akin to human influenza and, therefore, the government, decided to discharge them, official sources said, adding the remaining people were likely to be discharged after being kept under observation for about a week.
Ganesh, according to state health secretary V. S Singh, had died of flu but not of bird flu. Ganesh had gone to Dangs in Gujarat to attend the Shabari Kumbh Mela and suffered fever and cold and was hospitalised at Surat where he died six days after remaining on life-support systems. Singh said no case of human infection by avian flu virus H5N1 has been confirmed by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology. But he said the government has decided to put in place a contingency plan to meet any eventuality, adding the help of the Central government and international agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) is being sought to implement the plan as an abundant precaution. Meanwhile, the government has deployed flaming guns at Navapur to incinerate me litter of birds, including faeces and feathers. These guns, brought from Gujarat, are being used to burn out the litter in 14 most badly hit poultry farms in and around Navapur. Besides, all pits where the culled birds were buried are being sprayed with disinfectants, Navapur control room said. About 300 workers along with over 200 support staff from the animal husbandry department are still on the job of sanitising the town and villages in its vicinity. Besides, 58 health teams are also engaged in house-to-house survey to examine a total population of about 62,000 in Navapur (30,000) and 19 villages around its periphery.
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