Bird Flu in West Bengal: No H5N1 Case in State Currently, Team Formed to Evaluate Situation, Says Official

Kolkata, Jun 12: West Bengal currently has no bird flu case and the state government has formed a team to evaluate the evaluation in the state, a senior official said on Tuesday. The state has already conducted a screening of around 29,000 people from Kaliachak in Malda district, he said. A four-year-old girl from the district was diagnosed with the disease in January and recovered after treatment, the official told PTI.

A team comprising senior officials of the health department and a couple of representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was constituted for another round of evaluation of the situation in the state, he added. "There is not a single bird flu case in West Bengal. The only case was reported in January in Kaliachak in Malda district when a four-year-old girl was diagnosed with the disease. She is fine now and we are keeping a watch on her health," the health department official said. Bird Flu in India: WHO Confirms Second Human Case of H9N2 Virus From West Bengal

"After that, we screened around 29,000 people from that area of the district and not a single case was found. There is not a single bird flu case in West Bengal now," he said. The official said that the girl belonged to a family that had a poultry farm at their residence, which could be the source of the H9N2 virus getting into her system. WHO Confirms First Death from Bird Flu Strain H5N2 in Mexico

"We conducted a thorough check-up of each of the family members of the girl, but none was diagnosed with the virus," he said. The H9N2 bird flu virus is a subtype of the avian influenza virus which spreads through direct contact with infectious animals or indirect interaction with contaminated environments.

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