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Sunday, February 12, 2006NIGERIAN health officials are now waiting anxiously for test results on two children reported to have been infected by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in Kaduna State. The virus broke out in early January among poultry in Nigeria, but the H5N1 diagnosis was confirmed only last week and authorities are struggling to contain it as it spreads rapidly to farms across the north. The father of the two children - a four-year-old boy and a baby boy of four months - said they got a very high temperature and coughed up blood when all 250 of his geese, turkey and chickens died suddenly. Tests for the bird flu are still pending. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, the WHO has confirmed two more human deaths, bringing the total number for Indonesia to 18: Results of tests by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that two Indonesian women who died in hospital last week had died of bird flu, a hospital spokesman said. A 27-year-old who died at the Julianti Saroso hospital on Friday and a 22-year-old who died a day earlier both tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, Meanwhile, in Europe, the virus continues to spread among birds - this time swans: THE deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu has been detected in four European countries, carried by swans driven south by freezing weather in northern Europe. Yesterday Slovenia joined Italy, Greece and Bulgaria in reporting cases of the infection among swans. None of the four has seen cases among domesticated birds or human beings. Ah, those wild swans, mysterious, beautiful, and brilliant, and now vectors of disease. posted by Sydney on 2/12/2006 08:25:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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