Two suspected Bird Flu deaths in Chitwan

NARAYANGADH: Amid great tension between the government and poultry stakeholders to start selling chickent, two women are reportedly suspected of dying of Bird Flu virus infection in Chitwan.

The two reported women victim died of symptoms like common cold and fever, at the Teaching Hospital of College of Medical Sciences in Bharatpur.

Suspecting that Bird Flu virus might be the cause, the hospital has informed the District Public Health Office (DPHO), though the hospital did not take any test samples to ascertain its suspicion.

Meanwhile another similar patient is being treated for avian influenza virus (H5N1) in the hospital’s ICU. The victim, who is also a woman is being administered Tamiflu, a antiviral used in treating Bird Flu.

Test samples from this patient have been sent to the National Public Health Laboratory in Kathmandu for the confirmation of suspected virus.

He denied accepting that the patient, dead and alive, were affected with the Bird Flu virus just because drugs used to cure Bird Flu were used on them. He said that nothing can be said on the case unless medical test report arrived from the laboratary. The results are expected to come within a week.

So far no transmission of bird-to-human bird flu has been reported so far in Nepal.