The New Nation - Internet Edition

M Zahidul Haque

A few days back we were having an informal talk in the cabin of our varsity's Vice Chancellor, Prof.Dr.A M Farooque. We were discussing about the "Bird flu" or "Avian influenza". At one stage, Prof. Farooque jokingly said - "Can you remember, in our boyhood, we have seen that a chicken showing drowsy sign was immediately slaughtered and cooked. That's all. Who knows if those chicken had today's Bird flu or not!"

True, with the advancement of science and technology many hidden and new facts are coming out. Every morning people all over the world are learning new things. For instance, how many people had died due to Diabetic in the past is not known because the disorder called 'Diabetic' was not discovered in those days.

Of course environmental degradation and climatic changes is giving birth to new strains of virus and bacteria. And the human beings are frequently getting exposed to these harmful microbes. As a result humans are being attacked by new diseases everyday. However, under the natural process, when a new disease attacks us, a new strategy evolves to combat it. So, there is nothing to worry about. The only thing we are to do is to take some precautions.

It has been proved that soap and heat can kill the Bird flu virus. If we wash our hands with a soap or hand-washing liquid everytime after handling chicken,eggs,or meat the risk of being attacked by the bird flu virus would be lessened.We can wash eggs in dilute liquid soap and preserve after wiping by a clean cloth or tissue paper. Well cooked chickens and eggs are quite safe for human consumption because heat (at 70 degree C) kills the Bird flu virus.

It is a fact that when a poultry bird is infected by the Bird flu virus, it soon starts transmitting/spreading the virus to other birds including ducks,turkeys through their faeces and saliva. So the only way to stop the transmission of the virus is to destroy and bury all the birds in the flock or farm.

Now the point is, why are we taking so stringent measures against bird flu by killing all the poultry birds in a farm or homestead? The simple answer is, to contain spreading of the virus so that it may not infect humans and other healthy poultry birds.

In reality, Bird flu is no different to Human flu. But the Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 which causes Bird flu or Avian influenza after entering into the human body may mutate through genetic recombination with another virus and the new mutated virus may create a pandemic which may claim more lives! Of course this is also a scientific assumption, it may happen or may not. But to take protection against such mutation,stringent measures have been recommended.

At the moment, a person if infected by the bird flu virus will show signs of common human flu which include, fever, diarrhea, cough, sorethroat, muscle pain, vomiting, eye infection, etc. In acute case, the patient may experience serious respiratory distress and lung infection(pneumonia).

Everyone should keep in their home sufficient number of Paracetamol tablets and ORS so that in time of emergency these

can be used to control fever and for rehydration.There is no appropriate drug for the treatment of Bird flu but Roche's 'Tamiflu' is widely used.In our country Bird flu drug 'Oseflu' is available.

Meanwhile a recent enzyme mixture created by the Icelandic Company Zymetech is capable of killing the H5N1 virus in less than 5 minutes without damaging healthy cells with cent percent success rate.

That's all in brief about the Bird flu. But one thing really makes me grieved when I see hundreds of chickens are being culled and burried under the soil. I have also asked some people involved in the poultry business that cannot we, instead of destroying cook, if not the already infected chickens but the to be infected ones near the farm site and distribute the cooked meat among our poor people as well-cooked chickens are safe for human consumption?

Imagine! If these chickens were not infected by Bird flu, we wouldn't have even dreamt to cull them or to distribute those among the poor people who cannot afford to buy chickens, cook the meat and eat. But now since we have no alternative but to cull the infected chickens, cannot we make them consumable for the poors? This may sound otherwise but I mean it !

[Prof.M Zahidul Haque is Chairman, Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University,Dhaka]