Health officials in Nigeria are investigating whether a fatal bird flu strain discovered here last week spread to humans after at least two children were reported ill, officials said. Trying to contain the disease, authorities fanned out across commercial poultry farms in the north on Saturday to destroy chickens suspected of being infected, slashing their necks and setting them ablaze in dirt pits. Two children have been reported ill near a farm in northern Kaduna state, where the H5N1 bird flu strain was first detected among poultry Wednesday, said Lola Sadiq, a bird flu expert with the World Health Organization in the capital, Abuja. No human cases have been confirmed so far.”Chickens, poultry are dying. The children are ill. What we did is to send some surveillance officers there,” Sadiq said. “They are monitoring all the people, farmers to see if they have the virus.” Speaking earlier, Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo told The Associated Press officials are investigating “one or two cases of reported illnesses” among humans which could be due to bird flu. Lambo said investigations are being conducted in the commercial capital, Lagos, as well as Kaduna. He gave no details, but said he expected results to be released Sunday.Elsewhere, China reported its eighth human death from the H5N1 strain, and Indonesia reported its eighteenth death. Italy, Greece and Bulgaria on Saturday became the latest countries to record the strain head appeared in birds. Bird flu has killed at least 88 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003 and ravaged poultry stocks across Asia, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 140 million birds, according to the World Health Organization.It’s difficult for people to catch bird flu, and no human H5N1 cases have been recorded in Africa. The U.N.’s bird flu chief, David Nabarro, said the disease’s arrival in Nigeria should be “a strong wake-up call” to all countries. He said its spread to Europe and Africa had increased chances the virus will set off a pandemic easily transmitted among humans.”Unfortunately, we cannot tell when the mutation might happen, or where it might happen, or how unpleasant the mutant virus will turn out to be,” he said. “Nevertheless, we must remain on high alert for the possibility of sustained human to human virus transmission and of a pandemic starting at any time.”H5N1’s arrival in Africa was first reported at Sambawa Farms in Jaji and the virus has been confirmed at five farms total in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states, killing at least 100,000 birds. Twenty-two other farms are suspected to have been infected in Kano and Kaduna, according to the government.Police, veterinarians and farmers began destroying thousands of chickens on farms across the north on Friday. At one farm in Jaji on Saturday, veterinary officials destroyed chickens by slashing their necks, dumping them in pits and setting them on fire. Nearby, police armed with automatic weapons finished off a group of 180 ostriches after running out of bullets a day earlier.While a seven-man veterinary team at Sambawa Farms wore orange protective clothing, only one of four veterinary workers destroying birds at another farm in Kano wore the same underscoring the lack of equipment available. Most of those taking part in the culling were sprayed with disinfectant first. In Kano, six farmworkers helping used bare hands to handle chickens, pushing wheelbarrows full of dead poultry into a pit and setting them on fire. International experts have pressed Nigeria to do more to combat the first outbreak in Africa of H5N1, but Nabarro praised Nigeria’s efforts.Agriculture ministry spokesman Tope Ajakaiye said there were no plans to close poultry markets or to impose restrictions on the trade or movement of poultry – measures international organizations say are key to checking the disease’s spread. “I don’t think it has gotten to that level,” Ajakaiye said. “We don’t want to cause a situation where there will be much panic or alarm.”
Feb122006