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ISLAMABAD, March 3: The ministries of health and agriculture are contradicting each other over the results of samples taken from poultry farms, where presence of a mild type of bird flu virus was recently reported in Charsadda and Abbottabad.
According to Federal Health Minister, Mohammad Nasir Khan, samples had been sent abroad and results would be available in three days. He said local tests showed the presence of H5 type of virus and it was not combined with the more virulent N1 virus strain that could infect humans.
However, the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock said that samples had not yet been sent to the UK.
The ministry on Friday issued a no-objection certificate for sending the samples to the UK but these would remain in the National Reference Laboratory of the National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) in Islamabad till the conclusion of US President George Bush’s Pakistan visit, according to the ministry’s animal husbandry commissioner Dr Mohammad Afzal.
The federal health minister had claimed on Feb 28 soon after the two farms had been isolated in the NWFP that the samples had been dispatched to the UK and results were expected within a week.
However, Mr Afzal said: “As far as I know, it is the duty of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock to send the samples abroad because the samples were from birds and not humans.”
He said that tests carried out locally had so far not confirmed the presence of H5 virus in the samples.
Secretary Health Anwar Mehmood also said results were expected in three or four days because the samples had already been sent abroad.
NATIONAL PLAN: An integrated national communication plan for prevention and control of bird flu was finalised here on Friday in consultation with representatives of the World Health Organisation, Unicef, the ministries of food, agriculture and livestock and health.
More than 50 health education officers from across the country participated in the consultative discussions.
“An important message that needs to be conveyed to people is not to panic and they only need to worry about carefully handling poultry and good hygiene practices,” said WHO’s technical officer Dr Rana Kakar.
NIH TESTS: The National Institute of Health (NIH) announced that samples taken from a pneumonia patient in Lahore were found to be negative for any type of influenza, including the H5N1 virus.
Blood, oral and nasal swap samples were collected by a team of NIH from a private hospital in Lahore after the patient with pneumonia was reported that he was not responding to normal treatment. The case was reported to NIH on Feb 24.
The patient had been in contact of three members of a family who died of similar symptoms a few days ago.
The NIH said these samples had been rigorously tested in accordance with WHO guidelines and they were found to be negative.
