Surveillance efforts to increase after reported bird flu death

Health authorities in Nigeria were redoubling surveillance efforts on Thursday to track the deadly H5N1 virus in birds and humans after the first human death from avian flu was reported in the country.

Laboratory tests conducted in Nigeria showed that a 22-year-old woman who died on 17 January following symptoms of bird flu was infected with the same virulent strain of avian flu that has killed millions of birds around the world and raised fears of a potential human pandemic, a government statement said on Wednesday.

The woman had slaughtered chicken to prepare a family meal before her death, health officials said. Her 52-year-old mother had also died of similar symptoms on 4 January but was not tested for the virus, officials said.

“The federal government is strengthening surveillance efforts across the country with particular emphasis on monitoring human contacts with poultry populations to prevent animal-to-human and human-to-human infection,” Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement on Thursday.

Samples taken from the victim and people who were in contact with her have also been sent to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United States Centres for Disease Control for independent review, he added.

WHO said in a statement on its website that it was working with Nigerian authorities to monitor the avian flu situation in the country. It said preliminary tests on samples taken from three other suspected cases and other people who were in contact with them turned out negative.

The agency advised that people should only consume chicken that has been properly cooked “until none of the meat is red”, stressing there is no evidence of infection from poultry or eggs that have been thoroughly cooked.

“The greatest risk of exposure to the virus is through the slaughter and handling of live or already dead infected poultry,” WHO said in the statement.

Nigeria reported Africa’s first case of bird flu a year ago. Since then the H5N1 strain of the virus has been confirmed in 17 of the country’s 36 states, but no human cases had been reported until now.

As part of new surveillance measures, movement of poultry around the country is to be restricted. People are also being urged to wash their hands thoroughly after handling live or dead poultry and to report any cases of suspected avian influenza to the authorities.

However, in poultry markets in Lagos on Thursday, both buyers and sellers were engaged in business as usual. Boys who make their living from slaughtering and cleaning birds for buyers in the markets did their job without the protection of gloves and seemed unimpressed by warnings about the dangers of their trade.

“We heard about this bird flu last year and nothing happened to us,” one of them, Isa Musa, told IRIN. “We are not going to stop our business because of something we are not sure exists.”  

dm/cs