Hungary warns of bird flu

After a series of Asian countries, recently Central European countries - Hungary found 5 dead geese at a farm in the south of this country suspected of being infected with bird flu.

Indonesian health officials inject vaccines for poultry on January 17 (photo: AP)

MTI news agency quoted Fulop Benedek, a Hungarian Agriculture Ministry official, said local veterinary officials confirmed about 40 of the 3,300 geese at the farm had symptoms of bird flu and five died. .

The samples of these dead geese were sent to Budapest for inspection, while authorities established a protection zone around the ranch and announced bird flu concerns to all groups. international authority.

If confirmed, this will be the first case of Hungarian bird flu since June 2006. All measures to limit the spread of bird flu in this country were unloaded at the end of August 2006.

* In Indonesia , following a ban on poultry farming in residential areas, the Jakarta city government has killed thousands of chickens, ducks and birds to prevent the spread of H5N1 virus. Currently 62 people have died from bird flu, most of them are reported to be exposed to infected birds.

* In Korea, yesterday (January 22), Korean health officials announced plans to destroy more than 660,000 poultry and pigs in an effort to prevent a new outbreak of bird flu.

T.VY ( According to Xinhua, AFP )

WHO warns of an outbreak of avian influenza in the world

Speaking at the opening of the World Health Organization Executive Committee (WHO) conference on January 22, WHO General Director Margaret Chan warned the world to prevent the possibility of an outbreak of influenza that will spread to many countries and regions. area.Ms. Chan highlighted the situation of disease outbreaks in 2006 and affirmed that this is the year with the highest number of deaths due to bird flu.

According to WHO statistics, a total of 161 out of 267 confirmed cases of bird flu died in 2006. This mortality rate accounts for 70% of people infected with the influenza virus, 10% higher than the rate. average since the first deaths were identified in China and Vietnam in 2003.

WHO affirmed that countries with large outbreaks of avian influenza did not quell the epidemic despite the high efforts.This also means that it will take a few years for the world to have sufficient means and effective measures to quell the bird flu.

Scientists are concerned that the number of people infected with the avian influenza virus could create conditions for the H5N1 variant to become a more contagious strain that could cause pandemics in the world and kill millions. people.

However, according to scientists, bird flu has not been easily transmitted from poultry to humans so far and is basically a disease of poultry.

VNA