PESHAWAR, Feb 6: A sample collected from a suspected patient of bird flu has tested negative, say hospital authorities.

Prof Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi, in charge of the isolation ward at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), said that the patient from Khyber Agency admitted to the hospital on January 31, was sent home on Wednesday. Flanked by Dr Khushdil Khan, medical superintendent of the hospital, he said that admitting patient to the makeshift 10-bed isolation unit didn’t mean that they had got avian influenza. “No case of human to human transmission of the disease has been reported so far,” he added.

Dr Afridi said that bird flu was 90 per cent curable through medication. The vaccines, he said, provided safety from the disease for six months. The virus causing the disease mostly strikes in freezing temperature, he said advising the people to use soap and detergent powder that kill the virus.

“To save the human, we have to protect the birds from the disease by putting in place a strong surveillance system,” he added. The people suffering from high temperature, pneumonia, flu and soar throats should contact the doctors, he said.Dr Afridi said that bird flu pandemic visited the world after every 40 years and the World Health Organisation already issued alert regarding the looming threat of the epidemic in year 2008. The disease, he said had entered third level and it could hit 35 per cent of the population globally if it went to fourth level.

He said that feasibility report had been sent to the government for the establishment of two respiratory isolation units (RIUs), one each at the KTH and Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad. The WHO, he said had expressed willingness to provide $500,000 for the two wards, but it wanted the government to bear some expenditure.

The two wards, once established would help the treatment of the patients suspected of carrying H5N1 strain of virus, he said.

WORKSHOP: A workshop organised By Livestock and Dairy Development department was attended by livestock officers from all the districts.