February 05, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 26, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 4: A joint team of national and international health agencies has taken some more samples from three suspected patients, who were shifted from the bird flu-infected poultry farm in Gadap to the Civil Hospital Karachi on Friday.

Sindh Deputy Secretary Health Dr Shakeel Mullick, who is also the focal person on bird flu in humans, on Monday night said that throat, nasal and blood samples were taken in the presence of a committee comprising representatives of the World Health Organisation, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, and the federal and provincial health ministries. They had been sent to the NIH laboratory in Islamabad and the result was expected after 72 hours, he added.

CHK Medical Superintendent Dr Kaleem Butt said that the team took fresh samples as those taken earlier were not helpful for the NIH laboratory tests.

Dr Mullick, Dr Abdul Wahid Bhurt, Dr Najeeb Khan Durrani and Dr Zulfiqar, members of the committee on monitoring of avian influenza in humans, later discussed arrangements related to the disease with the hospital’s medical superintendent and expressed their satisfaction over the measures taken so far.

The team also discussed technical aspects about hospital infection control guidelines and standard operating procedure regarding epidemiological response to avian influenza and proper clinical management of suspected patients. The experts suggested that pneumonia surveillance and fever clinics be set up at the hospital to detect the people contracted with bird flu virus at the earliest possible stage so that treatment could start after diagnosis, the release added.