Three more bird flu victims detected in NWFP
NIH confirms two patients suffering from H5N1; Federal Health Ministry taking steps to control virus
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: The NWFP Health Department on Saturday feared that the bird-flu pandemic could engulf the whole province as three more victims of the virus were admitted to hospitals in Peshawar and Abbottabad.
“The virus can spread to the whole province if precautionary measures are not taken on war-footing by the federal government and the concerned international donors,” remarked NWFP Caretaker Health Minister Syed Kamal Shah.
Also, heirs of two young students and Pakistan’s first-ever bird flu victims held the authorities concerned responsible for their loss.
Official sources told ‘The News’ that three more patients suffering from bird-flu virus were brought to hospitals in the NWFP.
Two patients ñ a 10-year-old girl and a man ñ living in the vicinity of a poultry farm in Abbottabad were admitted to hospitals in Abbottabad district on Saturday.
Health Minister Kamal Shah said one of the patients was admitted to the Ayub Medical Complex (HMC) and another to a private health facility, Shahina Jamil Hospital.
Sources told this scribe that blood samples of both the patients were sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH), which confirmed the two patients were suffering from H5N1 virus, which is considered the most severe bird-flu virus.
Also, blood samples of the third patient who was admitted to Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) were sent to NIH, which is supposed to release report within 24 hours.
Two young brothers ñ Muhammad Idrees and Muhammad Ilyas ñ had lost their lives in the KTH, mainly because of the negligence of the hospital administration as well as lack of coordination between the provincial and federal health departments.
Health Minister Kamal Shah said he did not want to hide the facts from the people and felt the situation could become critical if necessary measures were not taken in time by the federal government as well as by the international donor agencies.
“This is a totally new challenge, which we are completely ill-equipped and ill-planned to tackle,” explained the minister.
He said since it had been confirmed now that the two brothers died in Peshawar were the victims of bird-flu virus, the NIH officials still did not send their report to his ministry. He said if the NIH released its report positive, then they would send it to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) in Atlanta, America, for further verification. “For me, the lives of our people are more important than the poultry industry,” he remarked.
Senior officials of provincial health department said people in the poultry industry were powerful enough to manipulate the bosses of the NIH from releasing its report of the deadly disease that took precious lives and posed serious threat to many others.
The two patients admitted in Abbottabad were reportedly living in the vicinity of a poultry farm.
Similarly, the third patient in Peshawar belonging to the nearby Palosai town was serving as attendant of his wife in KTH when the two brothers were admitted there. Doctors in the KTH said the man was sleeping during the night near the isolation room where the two brothers were kept. He was suffering from severe pneumonia when brought to hospital and was shifted to an isolation room.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=11764