Bird flu kills again, spreads to another country

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Avian flu was blamed for another death in Indonesia on Friday and spread to a new country after Azerbaijan said the lethal H5N1 strain had been found in wild birds on the Caspian Sea.

The virus was discovered in birds in the West African country of Nigeria earlier this week, extending what a senior United Nations official called a devastating spread from southern Asia over the past seven months.

Nigerian authorities say they are acting to curb Africa’s first outbreak but there was little evidence of any concrete measures in the worst affected areas in the north of the country on Friday.

Indonesia said a woman being treated for bird flu at a specialist Jakarta hospital had died and another patient was in critical condition.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already confirmed 16 deaths from the disease in Indonesia, part of a toll of at least 88 deaths since the virus re-emerged in late 2003.

Human victims contract the flu from close contact with infected birds. There are fears the virus could mutate to a form where it can spread from human to human, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

David Nabarro, who heads the U.N. drive to contain the virus, said there was no evidence it had mutated to that point, but added, “it’s not far away.”

“I don’t want to scare anyone but the truth is this virus is undergoing changes slowly,” Nabarro told a gathering of advocacy and humanitarian groups at U.N. headquarters. “This warning that nature is giving us has to be heeded.”

As recently as last June, the disease was confined largely to birds in southern Asia, Nabarro said.

But in the seven months between June and last month, “something fairly devastating happened,” he said, noting the spread of the disease into Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and now sub-Saharan Africa.

AZERBAIJAN HIT

His point was underlined when Azerbaijan, a state that lies on a crossroads between Asia and Europe, reported its first outbreak of H5N1.

Azerbaijan said the virus had been found in wild birds floating dead off its coast.

The birds were found in the Caspian Sea near the Absheron peninsula, which includes the capital Baku, and off the southern Massaly region, near the border with Iran, Emin Shakhbazov, deputy head of the country’s veterinary service, told reporters.

Four children died in neighboring Turkey last month from an outbreak of the virus that was concentrated in the east of the country. A teenager in war-ravaged Iraq is another confirmed fatality.

Greece tightened safety measures at poultry farms in the north of the country after three swans tested positive for H5 bird flu. Further tests are being carried out at a laboratory in Britain to establish if this is the first case of H5N1 in wild birds in a member of the European Union.

NIGERIA CAMPAIGN

The WHO has warned that Africa, which is the world’s poorest continent and already faces a series of health crises, is at risk of widespread outbreaks in birds.

The WHO is rolling out a public education campaign to warn of the dangers of bird flu, using a planned polio vaccination program at the weekend as an opportunity.

“The critical thing at this point in the avian flu epidemic is to prevent human exposure to the virus, to prevent human cases, if they’ve not already occurred,” said Bruce Aylward, coordinator of WHO’s polio initiative.

Farmers and workers in northern Nigeria appeared bewildered by questions about bird flu.

“I have not seen this kind of infection before. I have no idea what it is,” said one who gave his name only as Shehu.

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